Defiant Richmond coach Adem Yze dismisses latest Dustin Martin rumours

Richmond coach Adem Yze says Dustin Martin is walking around Punt Rd “with a smile on his face” despite Richmond’s horror start to the season.

Richmond coach Adem Yze has dismissed suggestions he isn’t hard enough on his injury-hit playing group, doubling down on his post-game comments that he was happy with the effort provided in last week’s 91-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

And he stressed Dustin Martin was still walking around Punt Rd “with a smile on his face”, despite speculation he could be on the move or about to draw close on his stellar career.

Yze said Martin was engaged in helping the younger players at Richmond get better, but admitted the triple Norm Smith Medallist won’t make a decision on his playing future until the end of the 2024 season.

The first-year coach has had one win from his nine matches to date amid a spiralling player injury crisis.

He copped the heat last week with media commentators including Kane Cornes and Matthew Lloyd saying he had been too soft for declaring after the Bulldogs game that the Tigers’ players effort had been good, despite the margin blowout.

Adem Yze has defended Dustin Martin. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“I am not going to comment on what other people have got to say about us,” Yze said.

“I couldn’t fault our effort in and around the contest against a quality (side). We gave some opportunities to some younger players to play against good quality midfielders in the second half and I just thought their intent and effort was OK. It is what it is.

“I just know (that) from our intent and from our effort with tackle numbers and with pressure. In the third quarter, we were over 200 for pressure, so there are elements of our games (where) our boys are trying really hard. It is just our execution and at times last week, when you are talking about effort and running, well they (the Bulldogs) were running on top of the ground, we had two players off the ground (due to injury) and had limited rotations.

“It just got the better of us in the end.”

There has been heightened speculation about Martin’s future in recent weeks at almost the halfway point of the final year of his mega deal signed before the 2017 finals.

Yze said the club won’t discuss his future with him until there is a clearer picture at the back end of the season about what Martin – who turns 33 next month – wants to do post 2024.

“Those discussions will happen later in the year,” he said.

“Right now, he is walking around the place with a smile on his face, just helping our young players … he is really buying into the program.”

Dustin Martin has been under fire for his slow start to the season as Richmond struggles. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

He said the club almost had a bare minimum of players to choose from to take on the Lions on Saturday night, which meant the likelihood of more debutants.

Maurice Rioli (syndesmosis), Jack Graham (hamstring), Sam Banks (concussion) and Seth Campbell (knee) will miss the Lions’ clash, while Liam Baker and Kamdyn McIntosh are a chance to return.

Yze conceded that the Bulldogs smashed the Tigers in all three phases of the game, but predicted a better outcome against the powerful Lions.

“We got outplayed by a team that was hungry in all three phases,” he said of the Bulldogs.

“We weren’t happy with the way we played. We gave (up) way too much territory, got smashed at stoppages against a good stoppage team, and then our offence was a little bit scattered, so we have worked on all three of those phases this week.

“We have got a big opportunity to rectify that against a really good team up in Brisbane.”