Tigers forward pushing to play this season despite injury setbacksBy AAP
24 July 2024SIDELINED Richmond spearhead Tom Lynch is determined to play again before the season's end rather than be put in cotton wool.
Lynch, 31, has been limited to just eight games across the past two campaigns due to foot and hamstring injuries.
The Tigers listed Lynch as three-to-four weeks away in their Tuesday injury update, where they also noted he hadn't experienced a full pre-season in three years.
But Lynch, currently recovering from a hamstring complaint, indicated he would prefer to play to help out the cellar-dwelling Tigers and give him a launchpad into the pre-season.
"Against Hawthorn, I just did a minor hamstring but just with my history over the last couple of years, I've just had no continuity," he said.
"So we just need to sort of build up very slowly and hopefully get the last couple of games in.
"The club and I will have a chat when I get closer to a return date. Obviously I want to get out to play footy.
"I'll do my best to prepare myself to play and if it becomes too tight in the end and the risk is too great, I probably won't play. But if it's not, I'll be looking forward to getting out there and helping."
Lynch said he had "no idea" whether Dustin Martin, who has missed three games with a back injury and has been linked to a move to Gold Coast, would remain at Punt Road.
"All I know is that he's committed to playing this year," he said.
"He's been in this week, training really well. So hopefully he plays this weekend."
Fremantle and West Coast are both chasing the uncontracted Liam Baker.
Lynch, who joined Richmond from the Suns at the end of 2018 and quickly won back-to-back premierships, had empathy for his teammates.
"Clearly I'd love Liam to sign on and stay at the football club. He's an incredible player, he's a great leader for us, he's our vice captain. But he'll have to weigh up that," he said.
"Obviously the pull back to Perth and being in his home state's weighing on his mind and obviously we haven't had a great year. So he'll weigh all that.
"Clearly we'd love for him to stay but we'll support him either way."
Lynch declared himself committed to helping the Tigers bounce back.
"Rebuild - it's a bit of a buzzword but I believe next year we can really bounce," he said.
"We can get a couple good draft picks in, we'll hopefully have better luck on the injury front and I think we can play some pretty good footy next year.
"Obviously we're 18th on the ladder for a reason, we've got a lot of work to do, but I'm committed to playing for the Richmond footy club and helping as best I can."
https://www.afl.com.au/news/1179546/richmond-tigers-forward-tom-lynch-pushing-to-play-this-season-despite-injury-setbacks
