Unfortunately for everybody who enjoys exciting fast-paced footy, one of the best to ever do it hung up the boots during the week. At 28 years old, Cyril Rioli announced his retirement.
According to Fox Footy's Tom Morrisย however, Cyril's departure may lead to another Hawks premiership. It has nothing to do with Cyril's play on the field, or his direct impact on the team but instead with his salary.
Playing only 11 games in the past two years, Cyril was makingย somewhere between $650,000 and $700,000 per year.
Although it's unfortunate for the Hawks to lose such a superstar, they must have their eyes on the future, and the future may be Suns star forward Tom Lynch.
Already a target for the Hawks this off-season, more room in the salary cap to add another star can only entice the Gold Coast big man to want to sign.
Although $700,000 may not seem like enough to sign Tom Lynch, the Hawks were also able to free some cap space after ex-Tiger Tyrone Vickery decided to quit last November.
Vickery's contract was reported to be as much as $500,00 per season which now leaves the Hawks with an extra $1.2 million to spend in the offseason.
Alongside Lynch, the Hawks will go after big-name midfielders including Crows star Rory Sloane and Eagles gun Andrew Gaff. Just imagine a midfield made up of Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O'Meara and one of the aforementioned stars; all working the ball up towards big Lynch inside 50.
The exciting prospect of luring big names gets more exciting for the Hawks when considering that they'd be joining a list filled with premiership players and one of the all-time great coaches,ย Alastair Clarkson.
As Cyril hangs up his boots, he leaves a team which he's already done so much for, and one last favour - an extra $650,000 of spendings in the off-season.
