‘Look at Pendlebury’: Why Tigers coach won’t ‘put a ceiling’ on star after contract callTyler Lewis
Foxsports
August 8th, 2025 Richmond coach Adem Yze isn’t ruling out a season beyond 2026 for recently re-signed spearhead Tom Lynch.
Lynch returns to the Tigers from his five-week ban this Saturday and will return next season too after extending for another year on Friday.
Yze has regularly spoken about Lynch’s importance to Richmond through his performance and guidance to the young forwards at Punt Rd.
On Friday, the coach said he wouldn’t “put a ceiling” on Lynch’s career and referenced the repeat one-year deals given to ageing stars across the competition.
“When you look at Scott Pendlebury, I think he’s signed five one-year deals in a row,” he said.
“We don’t want to put a ceiling on how long that’s going to last, right now he signs a one-year deal and Dion (Prestia) is looking at a one-year deal as well.
“It’s not just the one-year process, it’ll all be based around body and impact in games. When I say it could be two or three years, if all going well the same sort of discussion will happen next year.
“For a player, you don’t want to look at the end, you don’t want to see the finish line, you want to be able to perform and hopefully they can last as long as ‘Pendles’.
“We’re obviously rapt he’s playing this weekend, but we’re rapt at the same time he’s committed for at least another season.
“He’s so important to our footy club but not only our footy club, our young forward line so stoked for that news to come out today.”
While Richmond committed to a heavy rebuild last year, it isn’t willing to push all of its premiership experience out the door.
Yze said players like Lynch, Dion Prestia, Nathan Broad and Nick Vlastuin were “critical” to fast-tracking the Tigers’ youth.
“You can see other teams around the comp are searching for that and bringing in players from other teams, we’ve got that at our doorstep and within our four walls,” he said.
“Dion is in discussion right now, Lynchy committed, Broady … their ability to fast-track our players is going to be so important for us.
“It’s awesome for our footy club and young forward line.”
Lynch plays his first game in five weeks since his rogue swing at Adelaide defender Jordon Butts.
Yze said Lynch was remorseful and eager to make amends.
“We did and it’s been five weeks since we did that … we love the fact he’s got white-line fever and he plays on the edge,” he said.
“Our younger forwards need to know what it is to compete on an AFL field, but it spilled over and the action was wrong and our younger players needed to know that.
“The discussion on him going in had started mid-season, so he knew he was a required player. We understand how important he is to us,
“Having his magnet available today, for a coach you just feel safer knowing our younger boys have got a quality forward, leader of our footy club to stand aside.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2025-richmond-tigers-coach-adem-yze-wont-restrict-tom-lynch-to-his-oneyear-extension-how-long-will-he-play-press-conference-comments-latest-news/news-story/9577ab86736789d0a69e7dc5f6f8fc93
