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FWC Final from 6am MondayRichmond CEO backs "outstanding" Yze despite season struggles
Jaiden Sciberras • July 19th, 2026 4:44 pm
The product might not be perfect, but Richmond has no plans to move on from head coach Adem Yze.
Joining the club with an inevitable uphill battle on his hands, Yze has overseen a major rebuild in Tigerland since arriving in 2024.
Drafting 12 rookies over his two off-seasons with the club, Richmond’s direction has been clear, prioritising youth via the draft and developing their future stars within the four walls on Punt Road.
However, this strategy has come at a cost. Within his two and a half years at Richmond, Yze has a measly record of nine wins and 55 losses, with the Tigers, only residing outside of the bottom four for nine of his 70 game weeks since joining the club.
In 2026, Richmond appears to have somewhat regressed, mounting just two wins as opposed to their five in 2025.
Injuries have had a cruel part to play on their season struggles; however, it hasn’t halted the pressure mounting on the first-time head coach.
Despite Richmond’s ongoing on-field issues, club CEO Shane Dunne has fully backed Yze, confirming that he and the club maintain full confidence in his ability to lead the Tigers back to contention.
“We don’t address that media speculation,” Dunne told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“Adem is an experienced professional, and he understands that there’s going to be speculation. There’s speculation on all of us at different times as there should be; it’s a high-performance game.
“We give Adem feedback regularly. We have open dialogue between myself, even the board and our executive general managers of football – there’s an open, honest dialogue there.
“We give feedback regularly and we’re seeing great signs with Adem.
“He is an experienced coach who is now two and a half year into his head coaching role, a great tactician and he has built an incredible rapport with our playing group.
“We are seeing our players develop under him, we’re seeing him continue to develop and that’s what we’re focused on right now.
“There’s no issues with Adem – we think he is doing an outstanding job as a coach.”
