Rioli has a much better CV than Nic Naitanui but they can both tease because every touch is sublime, while they never make an even contribution throughout the whole four quarters of a match.

Much of what Rioli does can never be judged by statistics alone as he is exceptional at what he can do for Hawthorn due to his deft taps and knock-ons, plus his ability to tackle and harass the opposition. In saying that, I believe this aspect of his game blurs our judgment on his overall output by the end of a match.

Rioli finished the day with just seven disposals off the back of 11 the week before against the Gold Coast Suns, and I found myself getting increasingly frustrated watching him play. It appears he has a ceiling on his performance due to not being able to physically will himself into the contest for the full four quarters.

I watched Rioli closely against Geelong last Monday and he had no influence on the game. He got to too few contests. He laid five tackles in the game and was just OK defensively. He lacked any presence when the Hawks moved the ball forward because he only got moving when the ball was in his vicinity.

If you are to look at the pure stats, his seven seasons to date, including this one, seem to mirror each other. This should not be the case for someone of his talent, but it is due to the fact he has only ever been able to be a burst player due to a lack of aerobic endurance and repeated efforts.

Rioli does things on the football field that only a handful of other players in the AFL competition are capable of achieving. I walk away from games after watching him play and often think of Gary Ablett jnr and Steve Johnson. The reason I think of them is that they were also pigeonholed as inconsistent half-forwards earlier in their careers due to a lack of overall conditioning and not setting the bar high enough for themselves. Those players had the acid put on them by their Geelong teammates and, although they did not like it at the time, they made the decision then and there that they wanted to become more than just an opportunistic small forward. I now admire them so much for the players that they have become and how consistent they are. The talent was always there but they now match that with a fierce appetite to run hard through the midfield from the first bounce to the last.

Rioli has been badly hampered by hamstring injuries over his short career, which has seen the club transform his running technique to try and take the pressure off the weak areas that are causing him soft-tissue injuries. Hawthorn’s fitness coach Andrew Russell is brilliant at what he does, tasting premiership success at both Port Adelaide and Hawthorn in his role. Rioli would be placed in cotton wool by Hawthorn at times to manage his loads so he is available for match days, but this also limits him to only centre bounce work as he just can’t run with the opposition’s best midfielders in general play. There was also talk in the pre-season that he could play off the half-back flank, but he is once again limited in that he would not be able to keep up with an opposition half-forward, who would run him into the ground.

The reason I come back to Ablett and Johnson is because I would love to witness a full season from Rioli that showcases just how good he is. But I don’t believe we will ever see that sort of season from him unless he can become more than a just a dynamic small forward who occasionally contests some centre bounces.

Jobe Watson stunned everyone at Essendon, including myself, with his ability to transform his physical weaknesses through dedication and a desire to fulfil his full potential. Like Rioli, Watson continually broke down due to soft-tissue injuries, but over just one off season his use of a boxing coach, sprints coach and a dietitian catapulted him to levels that no one ever thought he could reach

I’m not suggesting Rioli needs to lose weight like Watson did - Rioli looks in good shape - but the Bomber's lung capacity and ability to run all day was not there to complement the exquisite touch that he had when the football was in his hands. Once he was able to fix this problem, he became Essendon’s best and most important player in the space of three years.