{"id":95252,"date":"2025-08-25T18:22:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95252\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T18:22:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:22:23","slug":"afl-port-adelaide-forward-quits-as-new-coach-swings-axe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95252\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: Port Adelaide forward quits as new coach swings axe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide forward Willie Rioli has quit the AFL as the Power delist five other players.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Rioli was contracted until the end of next year but opted to retire.<\/p>\n

“I have given all I can to the game at the highest level,” Rioli said in a club statement.<\/p>\n

“I made up my mind a couple of weeks ago that this would be my last season.<\/p>\n

“I want to see even more opportunities given to our young, talented small forwards at Port Adelaide in Joe Berry and Tom Cochrane.<\/p>\n

“They’re the future of our club. It’s time for me to step aside.”<\/p>\n

The Power on Monday delisted utility Jeremy Finlayson, injury-prone defender Ryan Burton and fringe players Dylan Williams, Hugh Jackson and Lachie Charleson.<\/p>\n

They were axed axed at exit meetings overseen by new head coach Josh Carr, who has taken over from Ken Hinkley.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide forward Willie Rioli has quit the AFL as the Power delist five other players.\u00a0Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rioli considered retiring in the midst of controversies in late April and early May.<\/p>\n

The goalsneak expressed a hatred for Hawthorn in the wake of the rival club’s racism allegations in a social media post in late April.<\/p>\n

And in early May, he was banned for one game for a social media threat to Bailey Dale after the Western Bulldog made what Port described as a culturally insensitive remark during a game.<\/p>\n

Rioli played 109 AFL games — 57 at Port and 52 at West Coast, where he was part of the Eagles’ 2018 premiership.<\/p>\n

In July, he told a club podcast he carried a weight of past indiscretions including his 18-month suspension from 2019 for trying to swap his marijuana-tainted urine sample with a clean sample in a drug test when at West Coast.<\/p>\n

The talented attacker announced his retirement as the 28-year-old Burton and 29-year-old Finlayson were among players delisted.<\/p>\n

Halfback Burton arrived after three seasons at Hawthorn for the 2019 season and Finlayson crossed from GWS at the end of 2021.<\/p>\n

Burton’s career stalled amid frequent injuries, with the halfback playing only eight AFL games this season.<\/p>\n

The 162-gamer suffered a knee injury in round 16 and didn’t feature again.<\/p>\n

Finlayson, who also played just eight AFL games this year for a career total of 128, fell from selection favour in an inconsistent season.<\/p>\n

Their departures open up further list spots at Port, who have also farewelled retiring club legend Travis Boak.<\/p>\n

Ex-Adelaide and Gold Coast utility Rory Atkins, who joined the Power this season, has also retired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide forward Willie Rioli has quit the AFL as the Power delist five other players. Editor’s Picks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-95252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}