‘Full steam ahead’: Tigers’ plan to enhance ‘destination club’ statusRichmond coach Adam Yze has revealed his club could make a major free agency play this season, as the Tigers push to enhance its ‘destination club’ status.
HeraldSun
17 Feb 2026Richmond could launch a free agency offensive as early as this year with Adem Yze adamant the Punt Road redevelopment will only enhance Richmond’s ‘Destination Club’ status.
Richmond has millions of dollars in salary cap room and few list holes given the Tigers secured four key talls in the 2024 national draft and topped up on speed in last November’s draft.
The Tigers will need to fast-track many of those kids to get 50 games into them as quickly as possible, aware their premiership window is some time off.
But with Tasmania about to start ravaging national drafts and taking the cream of the uncontracted player crop given a $5 million signing bonus pool, clubs are aware they need to get in ahead of time.
Yze told the Herald Sun that Richmond would assess its progress this season to judge whether it was still too early to bring in established players.
But a club that inquired about West Coast’s Harley Reid last year has its full suite of selections and could be in a mood to launch.
“We have a really nice blend because we got eight (picks) in one draft and we were really fortunate to get some of our key position boys all in one,” Yze told this masthead.
“We got Jonty (Faull) and Harry (Armstrong) and Luke Trainor and Tom Sims. So that does balance your list as well as the highly talented smalls around them and then the four we got in this year have more speed and run. It compliments your talent. You are constantly looking at what the next steps are.
“Whether we bring in a free agent or start to look down that path now that Tassie is coming in? That is all part of the plan and (list boss) Blair (Hartley) is all over that.
“Whether we eventually have to start looking at ruckmen so you constantly look to get better but we will look at how we perform and how our young guys are going and where the gaps are.
“It’s not just my decision. It will be how close we are, do we pull the trigger on that right now and if so it will be full steam ahead.”
Richmond’s new Punt Road redevelopment will be completed mid-2027 but the Tigers will relocate elsewhere across the next pre-season to allow the club’s oval to be resized into an MCG-shaped field.
The club’s intraclub last Friday was a 16 v 16 contest given the current size of the oval but eventually the club will have a new oval and world class training facility only a few hundred metres from the MCG.
“It’s pretty exciting to walk to the MCG. It is outstanding and we are blessed to be where we are,” Yze said.
“I showed the players how lucky we are and how they do it in America. In College football the Clemson Tigers drive the bus around (their stadium) so the players can all walk into the stadium together. We walk from here to the ground with supporters all around you and you look at your feet a bit. But if you get your eyes up you look at this stadium. I went to the Colosseum (in Rome) when I travelled to Europe and the MCG is our Colosseum.
“So we are lucky to have it, we walk to the ground and play in the best stadium in the world and then walk back here and celebrate and have some fun with family post-game.
“Other teams would love to have it. Being in this precinct we are very fortunate. No doubt when we are in position to get free agents, if you asked Tom Lynch and Dion Prestia, when you stand here and walk across to the ground that is enticing. I would be (excited) as a kid so I am hoping it is for free agents as well.”
https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/richmond/how-punt-road-redevelopment-will-fuel-richmonds-destination-club-player-hunt/news-story/551a76a20ac60d06918193c6b85b48b8
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