‘Got to be careful’: Big issue with Tigers slander… and the brutal list calls looming large

In case there was any doubt during the honeymoon period, it’s not going to be a quick fix at Tigerland under first-year coach Adem Yze.

After competing bravely in Yze’s first seven games in charge, Richmond folded helplessly to the Bulldogs last Saturday, suffering its worst defeat since its crucifixion at the hands of Sydney in Round 23, 2016.

Yes, the Tigers have been categorically decimated by injury. At the same time, they were extremely poor and offered little resistance to the Dogs’ onslaught.

Richmond allowed the Bulldogs 22 scoring shots from 43 first half inside-50s. Yze’s brigade followed that up by conceding 10 more goals in the second half, capped by a staggering 77 inside-50s for the match.

On the surface, players’ efforts could be reasonably questioned — particularly in the second half.

However, while Yze was “really disappointed” by last Saturday’s outcome, he couldn’t scrutinise the effort his team showed.

“(I) just spoke to the players (about) our effort and I can’t fault our effort. The boys are trying,” the former Melbourne assistant said post-match.

“It’s like they’re trying too hard … I’ve said this over and over that we can’t fault the effort; it’s just our execution and our tackle technique.

“If it was (about) effort and intent then you would be a little bit worried, but I can never doubt that with our players — I can’t fault that. I can see some frustration with our execution, I just don’t want that to dent our spirit.”

Perhaps it wasn’t their spirit, but the Tigers looked dented out on the MCG.

On Monday, Herald Sun Chief Football Writer Mark Robinson went as far as to say Richmond’s senior faction “let Adem Yze down”.

“I got really angry with the senior players,” Robinson told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 during an impassioned rant.

“Forget what you’ve done in the past, you guys. You’re getting paid — do your job, show some spirit. How much does it cost to buy spirit? Just bring it, will you? Support this new guy.”

So, fair to say the players have copped it — and rightly so — but does Yze deserve to bear a share of the blame? Not according to Western Bulldogs legend Brad Johnson.

“He’s just started his coaching tenure. Let’s give the guy a chance to actually show the footy world what he can do,” Johnson told foxfooty.com.au.

“It’s just been stiff, all (these) key injuries to their senior players. And there’s the fact that he’s got to play youngsters at the moment, so they’re going to fluctuate in form throughout the season.

“They’re going to have games where they’re really competitive for the four quarters — they may even win a couple along the way — but they’re also going to have games like (last Saturday) where it just doesn’t work for them, and they have to go away and lick their wounds.”

Like Yze, Johnson didn’t buy into any ‘lack of effort’ discourse.

“We don’t know what he’s judging in terms of effort,” he said. “We don’t know what his parameters are,” he added.

“We’ve got to be careful when we start assessing his comments post-match, because he might’ve had five things on the board, and they (might’ve) achieved three or four of them.

“That’s why he’s probably not faulting the parameters around what they want from some of their players.

“On the outside I can understand — I watched the game, you could see at (times) where they were outworked and completely outclassed for longer periods of time — but I still fall back to the fact that they had three injuries on the night, they were down rotations, they were down players they could rotate.

“Those things, I think, certainly add to the outcome of the game.”

Missing from Richmond’s Round 9 side were the likes of Tom Lynch (hamstring), Tim Taranto (wrist), Jacob Hopper (hamstring), Liam Baker (leg), Josh Gibcus (ACL), Jack Ross (foot) and Judson Clarke (ACL) on the sidelines.

Joining that ailing contingent after the weekend are Maurice Rioli Jnr (ankle), Jack Graham (hamstring), Sam Banks (concussion) and Seth Campbell (knee).

The prevalence of soft-tissue complaints not only this season but in yesteryears has members of the Tiger Army questioning the club’s conditioning staff, led by physical performance manager Luke Meehan.

While the injury situation at Punt Road has been lamented at length, Johnson maintains its impact can’t be overstated.

“All the hype around Lynch at the start of the year; he was coming back, we were all positive about it, and he gets injured (shortly after) returning. Things like that he’s got no control over whatsoever,” the 364-gamer told foxfooty.com.au.

“(Yze) has got enough senior players (that) when they’re all together they can be quite competitive. It’s something to build around, (but) he just hasn’t had that luxury in the first part of his coaching tenure.

“When you look at all the young players (who played against the Dogs) — yeah, they got Dion Prestia and Noah Balta back on the weekend — but they’re going to have games like that where it just doesn’t click for the younger players.