It’s the little things.
The desperate, lunging one-handed smother.
The lightning fast hands to put a teammate into space.
The sublime skill level that conjures a scoring opportunity from nowhere.
It had been 315 days since Cyril Rioli had pulled on a brown and gold jumper.
And, boy, was it good to see him back.
The four-time premiership hero had 14 disposals, two marks, five inside 50s and a goal, which earned the biggest roar from the MCG crowd for the night.
Yet, as usual, the stat sheet does little justice to the forward’s true impact on the game.
Much of Cyril’s influence doesn’t get recognised statistically, despite being so important to the Hawks machine.
The Cyril swagger was back and, alongside Luke Breust (four goals), Jack Gunston (two) and Jarryd Roughead (one), the Hawks forward line looked back to its potent best.
With a limited pre-season, Rioli will continue to build into the year.
And if Saturday night gave any indication of what to expect from the 28-year old, the three-time All Australian still has all the tricks in his bag to render him one of the best small forwards in the competition.
