AFL 2025: Richmond coach Adem Yze on Tom Lynch's suspension, future

News.com.au

16 hours ago

Richmond coach Adem Yze told all his players the act of retaliation which earned Tom Lynch a five game was one the club 'can't tolerate'.
But he won't temper the premiership forward's 'white line fever' despite Lynch copping the season's longest suspension for his swinging right hand on Adelaide defender Jordon Butts at the weekend and wants the 32-year-old to play on into 2026.
Lynch hadn't had a possession against the Crows before his frustrations boiled over late in the first half.
Yze took Lynch and his young Tigers teammates through the incident in detail making it clear that acts of retaliation weren't acceptable as the club attempts to handle the loss of the key goalkicker.
'That's what we went through, not only we're going to miss him and it's our youngest line, we need him out there,' he said.
'But we needed to stress to Jonty Faull, Tom Sims and Harry Armstrong that that action we can't tolerate as a club.
'They know that, they know Lynchy didn't mean any harm by it, he just let things spill over.
'We had those discussions in house and he's got to help our players in other ways for five weeks.'
Yze said the loss of Lynch was a heavy blow to the Tigers' greenest line with obvious forward replacements thin.
But while Richmond is set to put its immediate goalkicking future in the hands of inexperienced forwards, Yze ruled out blanketing Lynch's aggressive nature.
'He's always had white line fever, that's when he plays his best footy and it just tipped over on the weekend,' he said.
'The consequences are going to be really harsh, he's going to sit out for five weeks, we've got a fit player that's sitting out which is disappointing for us as a footy club.
'But we're never going to temper that, obviously the way he's retaliated was wrong and he knows that, but when he plays his best, he plays on edge.
'We'll keep helping him with that.'
Lynch, 32, is out of contract at the end of the season.
Yze doesn't expect the forward to hang up the boots however, saying list manager Blair Hartley and Lynch were in discussions about extending his career.
'No doubt, Blair is in that having those discussions with him right now,' he said.
'That one incident, the week that he's had, is never going to dent anything that he's done.
'Not only in previous to me being here but even the last few weeks, the guidance he's giving some of our forwards is going to be really important, not only next year but that's years to come.
'Having his magnet available has been critical for us and it's going to be really hurtful now that we don't, we're going to see how much we miss him over the next five weeks.
'No doubt he's going to be an important part of the next few years, for sure.'