What Jack Riewoldt wants to see from Richmond in 2025
By Andrew Slevison
SEN
21 Feb 2025Richmond enters the 2025 season with very few expectations to meet.
The Tigers are in the second year of a rebuild under Adem Yze and have one of the youngest lists in the league after cutting thin last trade period.
Having bolstered at the draft with six first-round picks and eight selections total while losing several important senior players, the assumption is that the Tigers will struggle to win games of footy in 2025.
Club legend Jack Riewoldt is well aware of that belief, and while he is not expecting too many victories for the yellow and black, he just wants to see plenty of opportunities given to the new influx of youngsters.
“I want to see the kids play as much as possible,” Riewoldt said on SEN’s Whateley.
“I think that’s a really important point, and it is what it is (that) they’re not going to win a lot of games of footy this year. They’re of the understanding of that and everyone else is as well.
“So get games into young guys.”
Three-time premiership Tiger Riewoldt also wants to see a clear game plan from Yze who must assert his style on the group in his second season at the helm.
“Fundamentally though we want to see Adem Yze’s fingerprints over the game plan and over these players to know that they are playing the way he wants them to play,” the Fox Footy broadcaster continued.
“Too much last year they were dictated to by the opposition and potentially dictated to how they went week to week.
“Let’s start to see a brand of footy that we can identify as Richmond. It may not win them many games this year, that’s ok, but I want to start to see the foundations of the next premiership team for Richmond which may be three, four, five years down the track.
“It starts now and it starts with their game plan.
“Hopefully we can see some of the first-round draft picks, who are all highly touted, playing 15 to 20 games this year and starting to establish themselves as good players of the competition and the next crop of Tigers that could take Richmond to the top again.”
The big club that Jack Riewoldt has a good inkling about in 2025
Former West Coast coach Adam Simpson also commented on the Tigers and Yze this week.
Having been through a similar rebuild at the Eagles, Simpson is well-versed to pass judgment on the current circumstances of the Tigers.
He says things should be fine as long as the higher-ups are clearly seeing what Yze is trying to implement, can grab the little wins and are prepared for the hits along the way.
“With ‘Ooze’ (Yze) it’s understanding and connecting the board and CEO to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Simpson said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“‘This is going to take time, we’re going to grow together, we need to get little wins this year’. That just might be going from 18th to 16th.
“If the board accept that and it’s presented in a way of improvement… you might not see it on the scoreboard, but just being a little bit harder to play against in the first phase. Defensively what can we do? Or he might go offence - I’m not quite sure.
“I’m assuming staying in games for longer would be the first priority. It’s the same as West Coast, we went through this the last couple of years.
“18th at everything is not great. You can be 15th, 16th, creeping into the top 10 at something, whether it’s pressure or tackles or whatever you pick that’s part of a rebuild.
“We did look at Brisbane’s growth from when they started when ‘Fages’ (Chris Fagan) first got there to where they are now. They were 18th at everything when he got there and they’re obviously top four at a lot of things now.
“‘What’s important?’ - that’s what he would have presented to the board and that’s what they’re going to work on this year.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2025/02/21/what-jack-riewoldt-wants-to-see-from-richmond-in-2025
