Is Geelong’s Steven Motlop better than Cyril Rioli?

That’s the question being raised by News Limited this week.

Motlop has played 36 games at AFL level and Rioli 111 – one will play on the weekend, the other won’t through injury.

The report suggests a stats comparison after their first 37 matches has them even, and goes so far as to say Motlop is a more rounded player.

"He's a more rounded player than Cyril, so you could say he's a better player," one opposition coach told News Limited.

"He doesn't tackle like Cyril, but he does the other things better. He's got better endurance and he's a genuine midfielder.

"You can't stop him when he just takes off."

Rioli played 24 matches in his debut season, 2008, after being selected by Hawthorn in the 2007 National Draft.

He had an immediate impact on a side that won the premiership that year. He was just 18 years old.

Motlop did not play a game in 2009 after being drafted in 2008. He played one game the next year and four games the following year, in 2011. Admittedly, he battled injury.

It took him three years to begin to make an impact, playing 22 games in 2012 and now, in his fourth year, getting the Rioli comparison after 36 games (Rioli notched that milestone in 2009 mind you, just his second year at the level).

Motlop is 22 years old, and now having a similar impact Rioli did at 18. Does that make him a better player at the same age?

You be the judge.

While stats are certainly a valuable tool, they often don’t tell the complete story. The stats say the two are neck and neck after 37 games (Moltop with play his 37^th match on Saturday), but do they take into account the game changing pieces of play that don’t translate to the stats sheet?

Consider this.

The report fails to make mention of a remarkable piece of play in Rioli’s first season, the bit of play that had every Hawthorn and football fan alike standing up and cheering and etching the Rioli name into their memory.

When Stuart Dew kicked the footy onto the Members Wing at the MCG on Grand Final day 2008 and three Geelong players converged on the ball, Rioli, despite being severely outnumbered dived over one, tapped it away from another, sprung to his feet and tackled for holding the ball.

It was a game changing repeat effort. An effort that would not be forgotten. An effort that arguably sparked Hawthorn to an upset Grand Final victory. An effort that made Rioli a premiership player in his first season.

Has Motlop got that moment? The moment that makes him a household name? A moment that sets him above players like him?

Motlop is undoubtedly a talented player, a player with x-factor capable of winning a game off his own boot.

The difference between the two? Rioli lived up to his potential in his first season, with that effort on the wing in the third quarter of the 2008 Grand Final, and the two goals he kicked soon after. Everyone knew he was a player capable of turning a big game and he did that remarkably, in the biggest game of his career in his first season.

That’s what separates and elevates players above all others.