Unlike renowned recluse Dustin Martin, Richmond coach Adem Yze isn’t shying away from the magnitude of the Tiger idol’s looming 300th AFL game.
Martin will play his milestone match against Hawthorn at the MCG on June 15.
A triple premiership hero and the only footballer to win three Norm Smith medals as best-afield in a grand final, Martin was rested from Richmond’s stunning upset win in Adelaide on Thursday night.
The unfancied Tigers produced a barnstorming six-goal third term to set up an eight-point win over the Crows, 12.7 (79) to 10.11 (71).
Martin was ill mid-week but would have been rested anyway to ensure his 300th game is at the MCG before an adoring Tiger army.
“We did win, so he might have to come back through the VFL,” Yze said post-match.
“Nah, but in all seriousness it’s a massive week for our club and it’s one that we want to celebrate one of our greatest players.
“We do that really well at our footy club … celebrate our people. And this is an opportunity to celebrate one of our best.
“We will obviously have an amazing week leading up to it.
“Our players will want to play well for him and make it a big occasion for him.
“So yeah, we’re not going to shy away from the fact that we want it to be a big spectacle and we want to obviously play well for him.”
Yze’s second win as Richmond coach was largely unexpected by the wider football community, but not by him.
The first-year coach entered the game with a sense that his players, despite having one prior win and being on an eight-game losing streak, were on the verge.
“It does obviously put just a nice feeling on what we’ve been training and implementing,” he said.
“Just to get some reward for effort – the last three weeks since the Brisbane game (a 119 point loss) we feel like we’re turning the corner.
“We have got 100,000 members who expect us to play well every week, we have got a big Tiger army that follow us through thick and thin.
“So we do have a lot to play for, irrelevant of how many wins we’ve had for the season.
“It’s good for our players to understand that. And they do understand that, that is part of our DNA.”
(AAP)
(Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Heat comes for Nicks as SA radio host tees off at ‘boy’s club’ Crows
Matthew Nicks says he’s under the most pressure of his Adelaide coaching tenure and concedes his club’s finals hopes are in tatters.
Nicks is appealing for Crows supporters to stick by the club after slumping to another horror loss on Thursday night.
Nicks says the eight-point home loss to Richmond – who entered the game with one win and on an eight-game losing stretch – leaves Adelaide likely to again miss the finals.
“From a finals point of view, it’s going to be very, very tough for us, mathematically, to get in there,” Nicks said post-match.
The Crows have just four wins and by the end of the round could be 14 premiership points adrift of eighth place in a season when they embraced expectation of breaking a seven-year finals drought.
Nicks had been due to fall off-contract at the end of the season but, in March, was given a two-year contract extension until the end of 2026.
Adelaide’s chairman John Olsen on Wednesday said he had “no issue” with the extension despite the club’s poor performances.
But Nicks admitted the loss to the Tigers would heap more pressure on him.
“We’re all in,” Nicks said.
“So my way of working through this is to dig in even harder and continue to work as hard as I do.
“I have mentioned it before, that I am actually in the job because I enjoy pressure. Right now it’s at its highest.
“It doesn’t mean I’m enjoying it as much as I was a number of weeks ago but I’ll put my head down and go to work like we all will.
“As a club, that’s what we need to do – find a way back.”
Nicks, in his fifth season as coach and with 33 wins from 96 games, maintained his messages were still resonating with his players.
“We’re still tight,” he said.
“And working through what we want to do, what is pretty clear on a Monday when we look back on the game is what we need to be better at.
“Probably the most frustrating part about it all is we actually have an understanding of it – it’s just the ability to now get back to where we know we can be.
“But yeah, the connection is strong as it has been right throughout the year.”
Nicks urged an increasingly frustrated Crows fan base to also stick tight.
“I completely understand how they feel,” he said.
“And we sit in the same boat: we are frustrated, we’re disappointed in what we’re putting out there.
“And I ask them to stick by us. It’s a tough time at the moment but stick by us.”
Summing up the mounting criticism against the Crows was former player turned media presenter Stephen Rowe, who launched at the club in a heated tirade on FiveAA following their loss.
“I don’t rate the decision-makers that had now having to make judgement,” Rowe said of the Crows’ hierarchy, and in particular CEO Tim Silvers and club director and former great Mark Ricciuto.
“Your football director Mark Ricciuto… now, people say I’ve been into him for years, because this was always coming, this tsunami of response for where we are.
“Justin Reid, the list management team… that list management group has to 100 per cent go in the Bunsen burner.
“I know what’s going to happen – we’re going to have a review. Tim Silvers will stand up ‘we’re going to have a review’… and I know what will happen. They’ll throw an assistant under the bridge, they’ll say the development’s not right, and the same key people that I’ve been in onto for a number of years will still remain in those chairs.
“I think that’s the frustration that a lot of the Crows fans have… not enough people say it, it’s a boy’s club.
“I thought Tim Silvers would come in here with a silver bullet, but it’s the Stockholm Syndrome… he thinks the same.
“Tim, Tim! I want you on tomorrow, and we need to drill down on what your plan is from here forward. Because they’re coming for you. They’re coming for the club. When I say they, the fans! Your fans!”
(with AAP)
