Tigers miss out on Demons coach; Yze confirms draft priority

Richmond senior coach Adem Yze says the club has missed out on luring Troy Chaplin back to the club.

The former defender has been an assistant coach at Melbourne since 2016, stepping into the coaching caper after he retired at the Tigers.

Yze and Chaplin worked together at the Demons where they were part of Simon Goodwin’s 2021 premiership coaching staff. Chaplin stepped in as interim coach at the Dees late this season when Goodwin was sacked.

After highly-rated assistant coach Steve Morris opted to depart the Tigers to spend more time with his young family, Yze asked the question of Chaplin who is contracted with the Dees for next year.

“He (Morris) had to step away from AFL footy for the next year or so and they’ve got another little one on the way,” Yze said on SEN Breakfast.

“We had a position that we needed filled. We’ll have a couple of interviews later this afternoon with different coaches.

“‘Chappy’ is someone I worked with so we just sounded him out. He was contracted so once we found out he another year to go obviously that didn’t last too long.

“You’ve got to ask the question. When you’re missing a coach or a position, what I wanted to do was to go and look at the best coaches. Their team defence when I first got there at Melbourne was top four and had been for a long time.

“So I just wanted to ask the question and unfortunately we missed out.”

Tigers will hit the draft

Aside from coaching acquisitions, the Tigers are also going about their preparations for this year’s National Draft.

Yze insists the club will use their two high-end picks and will not look to enter the free agency market until next year.

“We’re really clear that we’re going to hit the draft again,” Yze replied.

“We’ve got two early draft picks again and we’re looking for young talent to bring in. For this season we’ll do that again.

“We might look to free agents and things like that next year and moving forward.

“Last year we brought a lot of young talent in, we’re going to do that again this year and start to think of those things next year.”

Defender weighing up future

One Tiger who is weighing up his future is defender Tylar Young.

The 27-year-old is out of contract and is the subject of reported interest from North Melbourne, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs.

“To Youngy’s credit, the way he finished the season has opened the eyes of a lot of clubs,” Yze said of Young.

“Right now we’ve put an offer to him, hopefully it’s good enough that he decides to stay.

“He’s gone away with the boys overseas for the next few days. He’s going to take a little bit of time to think about it.

“But credit to him, others teams are seeing what we’re seeing in him. So hopefully he decides to stay, and if not, that’s the landscape we live in.

“If he sees a future elsewhere we’ll have to deal with that in the coming days.”

Why delist Blight?

The Tigers also recently cut Jacob Blight after a year and a half on the list which yielded 10 senior games.

Some sections of Richmond fans believe Blight should have been given more chances and perhaps even been offered a new deal.

Yze explained the situation surrounding the Western Australian.

“It’s a hard one. Some of that can just be timing and circumstance,” the Tigers coach said of the 23-year-old.

“Blighty unfortunately was out of contract and he was a mid-season pick. Based on the draft hand we had last year and the players we brought in, we’re just stocked with a lot of key position players.

“He got tipped out and pushed out last year and couldn’t force his way back in unfortunately. Right now it’s just a balance of who we’ve got on our list and who was out of contract and unfortunately he was the guy that missed out.

“I think he might get another opportunity at another team.”

Listen to the full chat with Yze below: