DARREN MONCRIEFF
Sunday, July 31, 2011
SOUTH Fremantle Football Club has honoured two of its past champions, inducting the former Bulldog pair into the club's inaugural Hall of Fame.
Stephen Michael and the late, great Maurice Rioli were part of the 45-strong intake into the WAFL club's recent Hall of Fame induction, its first.
Michael and Rioli easily met the club's criteria for selection: overall contribution, quality of performance and individual impact.
South Fremantle is regarded as one of the first football clubs in Western Australia to fully open its doors to Aboriginal footballers, which began in earnest in the early to mid-1970s.
It has since cultivated a strong Indigenous presence in its league, reserves and Colts teams, as well as its zone and junior districts, and also with its support for the annual Jimmy Melbourne Cup match with Claremont.
At the peak of his powers as a footballer, Michael (pictured) had it all -- from the superb to the sublime, winning games off his own boot in a 243-game career that spanned 10 years from 1975.
He turned many a game on its head with his around-the-ground versatility and physicality.
Michael, who played his entire WAFL career at South Fremantle, resisted big-money offers to join the VFL, especially from Geelong, only recently citing family reasons for his decision to stay in Western Australia.
Up until his retirement after the 1985 WAFL season, Michael had amassed an impressive collection of silverware: a premiership medal (1980), two Sandover medals (1980, 1981), and five Bulldogs fairest-and-bests (1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983).
He was the club's captain in 1983.
Michael holds the WAFL record for most consecutive games, with 217.
He played in four grand finals for Souths (1975, 1979, 1980, 1981) for one premiership (1980).
In 2009, Michael was named captain, and ruckman, in South Fremantle's Indigenous Team of the Century.
Rioli (pictured) followed his older brother, Sebastian, to the Bulldogs from the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory and joined the Fremantle club in 1975.
Rioli, who died on Christmas day last year at only 53, had a two-part career at South Fremantle, the first of which was from 1975 to 1981 (from 1982, he would play an important role in changing perceptions of Indigenous footballers in the VFL with Richmond).
His return to the west in 1988 was brief and it included a grand final in 1989 before his retirement from the WAFL a year later.
His early career with the Bulldogs, in which he played 121 games, paralleled that of team-mate Michael, sharing in the Bulldogs' grand final triumphs (1980) and disappointments (1975, 1979, 1981).
Judged the best player in two grand finals, Rioli won the Simpson Medal in 1980 and 1981.
Upon his return to the WAFL club in 1988, Rioli was made captain and added a further 39 games for 160 in total.
In 1989 he led the Bulldogs to a grand final, against Claremont -- but like in the 1981 premiership decider, that, too, was unsuccessful.
Rilio was named vice-captain in South Fremantle's Indigenous Team of the Century in 2009, and was selected in the centre in that team.
The inaugural South Fremantle Hall of Fame intake was for players who joined the club before 1980.
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Last Modified on 01/08/2011 11:49