IT HAS become a tradition at Punt Road. For the last couple of years, before every main training session, Richmond pair Shai Bolton and Daniel Rioli will gather around assistant coach Andrew McQualter and find out what that day's competition will be.

Sometimes, it will be simple. Who will cover the most ground in that session? Other times, it will be a bit more complex. Which of their GPS numbers will reveal who has run at the fastest pace for the longest set distance? Once that day's competition is decided, the two good mates then agree on the prize for the winner, normally either coffee or lunch, shake hands on it, and get to work.

"Shai was always a good trainer, but this made him become a great trainer. It made him train with purpose and speed," McQualter says, recounting the journey behind Bolton's meteoric rise.

At just 23 years of age, Bolton is already one of the League's most watchable players. He is a highlight-maker, a big-game player, and a matchwinner. He might be quiet and reserved off the field, but he is fiercely competitive on it. It's something that Rioli, his best friend and his long-time training foe, knows all too well.

Already a dual premiership player, last Wednesday night Bolton celebrated another electric season with his first All-Australian blazer. That honour had followed a third-place finish in the AFL Players' Association Most Valuable Player award earlier in the evening, as well as a top-10 placing in the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year.

But the best may still be to come. With greats of the game already hailing the special Tigers talent as the best player in the competition, AFL.com.au has spoken to those most influential in his life to track his rise to superstardom.

The player …

OFTEN before games, a group of Richmond coaches will sit down and pretend they're in charge of the opposition. It's an activity designed to predict how they would employ their opponent's set of players and who they would select to match up on which Tiger, if their roles were reversed. But, almost every time, they get stuck on one question: 'Who will take Shai?'

Bolton is such a unique player that defining his role, and deciding his best and most dangerous quality, can be difficult. He can mark, but he can also crumb. He can kick goals, but he can also win clearance. He can dodge you, but he can also bully you physically with his contested work.

Perhaps the best indication of Bolton's flexibility is the fact he claimed the Mark of the Year award last season for his spectacular leaping grab over Geelong's Mark Blicavs in the goalsquare. He could now add the Goal of the Year crown later this season, having been nominated for his miracle effort from the boundary against the Western Bulldogs earlier in the campaign.

"What makes Shai incredibly difficult to play on is how do you actually stop him? He's lightning fast, he can jump, he's evasive, he's very hard to tackle and he's now built a pretty decent fitness base," McQualter, Richmond's midfield and offensive coach, says.

"He's got all of these tools and weapons where he'd be an incredibly hard match-up for other people. If he's not impacting the game in one way, he has other ways to be able to impact it. They're the most difficult players to play on."

For a period earlier in his career, even Richmond struggled to identify how best to use Bolton and his unique skillset. Fortunately, there was another Tiger who that same group of coaches had once found difficult to place on their magnet board: Dustin Martin.

The two aren't necessarily similar in terms of how they play their football, Martin is physically bigger and perhaps more commanding than Bolton, but Richmond officials quickly realised that both are capable of impacting the game in similar ways.

So, they deployed Bolton in the same type of distinctive role that Martin had spent years defining. He would start in the centre, where his explosiveness and ball-winning nous would come to the fore, before pushing forward. That's where his ability to play tall or small, in addition to his evasiveness and smarts around goal, would allow him to be at his most damaging and dangerous.

The freedom of this position has enabled Bolton to excel over the last couple of years, particularly this season. It's evidenced by Champion Data, who notes that 46.7 per cent of his involvements have led to a Richmond score this year, the most of any mid-forward in the competition. For context, throughout Martin's 2017 Brownlow Medal and Norm Smith Medal-winning campaign, just 34.4 per cent of his involvements led to Richmond scores.

Furthermore, this year, Bolton has been involved in 29.4 per cent of all Richmond scores. It's the third-best number of any mid-forward in the League, behind only Melbourne superstar Christian Petracca and Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli. Not bad company to align yourself with.

"We found out they're good front-half and good front three-quarter players. Their ability to help our team score is their greatest asset, so to be able to surround them with the right people and put them in the right positions to do that is how Shai has been able to flourish this year," McQualter says.

"It's funny, with both of those guys, people don't realise they're actually incredibly footy smart. That probably gets missed among their talent sometimes. They understand the game better than most. You can just give them some guidance on how to maximise their output and they can understand that better than most and be able to execute it.

"Going through that with Dustin, we learnt that. Now, Shai is in a similar boat. Ultimately, at the end of the day, they're matchwinners. That's the type of players they are. They can win a match off their own boot, which we're incredibly lucky to have."

BROWNLOW PREDICTOR Who's leading the race?

The similarities between Bolton and Martin don't just extend to football, though. Both are significantly more expressive on-field than they are away from it, which means both have been made to become leaders and role models at Punt Road in their own right.

Bolton is, slowly but surely, becoming more vocal among the Richmond group. But even still, he'd prefer to let his football do the talking. The Tigers think he might have a fair say in September as a result.

"Now that he's playing football the way he is, when he does talk, which he is becoming much better at, it's powerful," McQualter says. "The whole group will lean in and listen. He's becoming a good leader, a really strong leader. It's not the 'ra ra ra' type of leadership, but he is becoming a strong leader among our group.

"He also absolutely loves the big stage. You'll talk to him about something and he'll just look at you and say, 'I got you mate' and he'll walk off. Sometimes, that's the only conversation you need to have. You just trust him."

The kid …

THE SAME note is scribbled down in Richmond recruiter Matt Clarke's earliest reports of Bolton: 'Dodge, weave, blast … Dodge, weave, blast … Dodge, weave, blast.'

Bolton had first emerged on the radar of the Tigers when he stepped out for South Fremantle's Colts side at just 15 years of age. He was raw, understandably, but even then he displayed the type of elasticity and evasiveness that would make him the AFL footballer he has become today.

There were knocks on his game – like the 'blast' part of Clarke's notes – that followed him through right until he got to Punt Road. But it was Bolton's undeniable strengths – the 'dodge' and 'weave' aspects to his game – that made him such a special prospect.

"It was just his movement," Clarke, Richmond's recruiting boss for the last 13 years, says of his earliest memories of Bolton.

"His lateral ability and agility, it was cat-like. He always landed on his feet. When he was at his worst, and most of that is gone now, but he would do that: dodge, weave and just bang it long. It did your head in a bit. His natural default was to get the ball, baulk around the man on the mark, dodge and weave, then just blaze it long.

"We thought if we could get hold of this kid and get him to lower his eyes and use the ball a bit more, or even just give it to someone and get it again by using his speed, then his dynamism and his lateral movement and his speed among the group would just be exceptional."

Richmond had Bolton high on its draft board, but was aware it wouldn't select until pick No.29 having traded out for Dion Prestia and Josh Caddy. "He was clearly the highest-rated player we had on our list at that pick. That was by a long way. It was a pretty easy decision at the time," Clarke says.

That was because the club saw the quality and athletic upside of Bolton. He had played forward and through the midfield at WAFL Colts level, while he was used on a wing during the national carnival for Western Australia. But even they couldn't have seen those multi-faceted traits translating to an AFL level, and to the level he has reached this season, as quickly as Bolton has managed.

His total of 95 shots at goal this year are the most of any Richmond player and the fifth-most of anyone in the League. But he has also started 355 centre bounces, the third-most of any Tiger, ranking No.1 at the club for centre clearance. It's evidence of his remarkable versatility and ability in multiple roles.

"He had some elite traits in his movement, in his ability to kick goals, in his ability to jump and mark and hit the ground and play-on and all of that sort of stuff. We just thought he had enough upside in him to be a good AFL player," Clarke says.

"He's probably a better player than I thought he could be. I wasn't sure he'd be able to go onball, even though he did that at Colts level. Going into an AFL centre bounce and doing that sort of stuff is a different kettle of fish. But he's been able to do that.

"There's no doubt he's become a better player quicker than I thought. Where he goes from here, that's up to him. We're just here to provide the environment, both on and off the field, for him to thrive. If they become premiership players or Brownlow Medal winners, you can't really predict that."

The mate …

IN THE days after the 2016 NAB AFL Draft, Richmond's list manager Blair Hartley approached Daniel Rioli with a request. The club had just drafted Bolton and wanted Rioli to join the Tigers contingent headed to Western Australia to pick up their new player.

Rioli didn't hesitate. He made the four-hour flight across the country to Perth, then the hour-long drive down to Mandurah, to introduce himself to Richmond's newest player and hand over his first club polo. They struck up an immediate friendship and have been "best buddies" ever since.

But even Rioli admits he was uncertain about how Bolton would make the transition into AFL life. After all, he was just a "skinny kid from Western Australia". However, like their budding friendship, it didn't take long for one to win over the other.

"I didn't think he'd make a big impact straightaway. But when he got that opportunity and made his debut against Greater Western Sydney over there, I remember every single bit of it. He flew for his marks, he was quick, he was really agile," Rioli says.

"I knew, from that day, that he'd be a special player. For him to receive that All-Australian blazer last week, I felt so rapt for him. I know how hard he's worked on the field during pre-season to get to where he is now. He's only been in the system for a short space of time, but he's made a big impact on this footy club."

Their training duels, set up by McQualter, have been the bedrock for both making the impact they have this season. Bolton was named an All-Australian for the first time as a half-forward, while Rioli was selected in the extended 44-man squad.

However, Rioli has a few different memories in terms of the outcomes of their training battles. When he would win, the reaction would always be the same. "There were days when I'd be coming out on top and Shai would see our GPS numbers halfway through training and give up halfway through," Rioli says.

And, on those occasions when Rioli would win – he says the competitions have mostly finished "50-50" – it would always take some time before that coffee or lunch was delivered. "He's pretty tight with his money, even though he's getting a lot of cash in his next contract," Rioli laughs.

For all of the comparisons Bolton receives alongside Martin, Rioli has a somewhat different take. Yes, his good mate is quiet. But that's only publicly. Behind closed doors, Bolton is a prankster. Rioli learnt this the hard way during their time together in Queensland hubs back in 2020, when Bolton would leap out from behind closed doors to scare his teammate, often filming the practical joke and watching it back together later.

"He's quiet, he hates the media, he hates being put on the spot for something. But behind closed doors, he's pretty loud. He talks a lot of smack and loves to have a laugh and joke around," Rioli says.

"He plays some pranks and always scares a lot of the boys. He can be quiet in meetings, but when he does want to speak his mind then he does. But the footy does all of the talking for him.

"He's a lot different to Dusty. Everyone thinks they're the same because he's a tattooed bloke that's pretty aggressive out on the field, but Dusty is quiet at the club. Shai is completely different. Obviously, he's a bit quiet with the media, but he's loud and loves to have a joke in our four walls."

Having seen him come this far, and collect a few prestigious accolades along the way, Rioli is excited about what will come next for his good mate. Providing, of course, that he's involved in the celebrations.

"To be his best mate and be part of the journey he's been on, I just wish him all of the best for his accolades and whatever is still to come," Rioli says. "Hopefully, I get a few mentions in his speeches when he wins the Norm Smiths and the Brownlows – or whatever it is he wins next – because he's going to be one hell of a player."