Yze deserves to be in coach of the year conversationBy Ronny Lerner
Footyology
Jul 21, 2025 There many ways one can judge who the coach of the year could be in any given season.
Is it someone who drags his side back up the ladder after a down year or two with the same core? Someone who backs up an impressive season the year before? Or is it a coach who takes a group of players where they’ve never been?
Well, when analysing the 2025 season, Collingwood coach Craig McRae and Fremantle’s Justin Longmuir would be contenders to emerge from the first category.
Brisbane’s reigning premiership mentor Chris Fagan sits alone in the second category, while Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks and Gold Coast’s Damien Hardwick loom as obvious, strong candidates from the third category.
But there’s one coach that will get absolutely nowhere near the top eight this year who is a left-field nomination that also deserves to be high up in the conversation.
In fact, this bloke may struggle to avoid a bottom-four finish. Yet what he has done with his playing list this year has far exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic pundits. His name? Adem Yze.
Back in the pre-season, the near unanimous consensus across the board was that Richmond was going to battle to win a single game this year. Indeed, the popular view was that the Tigers would become the first team go through an entire season winless since Fitzroy back in 1964.
And while such predictions in the modern era are ambitious to say the least given how incredibly long the home-and-away season has become, there was at least sound basis for the grave concern that many shared for Richmond this year.
Firstly, they cut incredibly deep into their list in one hit as premiership heroes Dustin Martin, Dylan Grimes and Marlion Pickett retired, Shai Bolton was traded to Fremantle, Liam Baker and Jack Graham made their way to West Coast and Daniel Rioli jetted up to the Suns to link back up with Hardwick.
But rather than offset those departures with at least a few experienced players coming back the other way, the Tigers decided to go all in on the national draft and ensure themselves a collection of high-grade picks not enjoyed by a club since expansion clubs Gold Coast and GWS entered the competition 15 years ago.
With seven picks in the top 28, Richmond had a clear vision for the future, but severe short-term pain was expected by bringing in teenagers Sam Lalor, Josh Smillie, Taj Hotton, Jonty Faull, Luke Trainor, Harry Armstrong and Thomas Sims all at once.
Stepping into the role of head coach immediately after the departure of a legendary club figure, following on from a wildly successful era, is a very hard situation to be in and is almost always somewhat of a poisoned chalice.
That was Yze’s lot in life last season after being hired as Hardwick’s full-time successor and the former Melbourne star experienced a baptism of fire by managing only two wins in his first year.
And heading into 2025, he was widely seen as a quasi-caretaker who was just keeping the seat warm until a more credentialed coach came along to whip the Tigers’ exciting young list into shape and prime it for future success.
But Yze has not only held his own this year, he has excelled and silenced his critics with what can only be described as a very impressive coaching performance considering the stage of development his playing list is in.
After shocking the world in Round 1 by beating arch rival Carlton in one of the biggest upsets of the modern era, Yze has guided his developing side to a total of five victories so far this season, including the scalp of finals hopeful Gold Coast, to make a mockery of the pre-season prognostications attached to his club, and leave considerable egg on the faces of those who were adamant that the Tigers would not win a game this year.
The last of those wins came on the weekend, fittingly in a game that, again, almost everybody wrote them off in (this writer was one of the few who tipped them).
It might’ve been against West Coast, which is now comfortably one of the worst-performed teams in VFL/AFL history, given University had a better record in its last 90 games (12-78) than the Eagles (11-79), but the manner in which Richmond spanked them over in Perth was sensational.
While much of the focus during the off-season at Punt Road centred around the multiple big-name departures, what got lost was the fact that the Tigers still had the likes of Toby Nankervis, Tom Lynch, Dion Prestia, Kamdyn McIntosh, Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Broad, Jayden Short, Noah Balta, Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper on their list.
Yze’s ability to bring together that much-needed experience with the 2024 draft class, as well as other emerging youngsters such as Seth Campbell, Sam Banks, Tom Brown, Steely Green, Tyler Sonsie and James Trezise, get Richmond to punch above its weight and register some decent results along the way has been very impressive.
And if they managed to hang on against top-four contender GWS after opening up a 34-point lead at Giants Stadium, they would be above St Kilda on the ladder right now and level with Essendon and Melbourne on six wins with five rounds to go. Who had that on their 2025 bingo cards?
All of a sudden, things don’t look so gloomy down at Tigerland given how unexpectedly competitive Richmond has been this year. Much of the credit for that goes to Yze and it’s because of that he has rightfully thrown his hat in the ring to be recognised as a coach-of-the-year candidate.
https://footyology.com.au/yze-deserves-to-be-in-coach-of-the-year-conversation/
