By Michael Gleeson
Former Melbourne star and respected assistant coach Adem Yze has been appointed the new coach of Richmond.
The Richmond board met on Thursday afternoon and ratified Yze as the new coach of the Tigers to replace Damien Hardwick, who quit mid-season and has now been appointed the new coach of the Gold Coast Suns. A press conference to announce Yze’s appointment will be held on Friday.
Top job: Adem Yze is the new Richmond coach.Credit: Richmond Football Club
The club confirmed the decision on social media on Thursday night.
After a long process the final decision was down to a choice between caretaker coach and popular long-term Richmond assistant coach Andrew McQualter and former Melbourne player, Hawthorn assistant coach and current Demons assistant coach Yze.
“Tactically he is as good as I have seen. He sees it really well, he sees what is unfolding before others,” a former colleague said of Yze. The person worked with Yze in the Hawks coach’s box but did not wish to be named as he works at a rival club.
Demons assistant Adem Yze Credit: Getty Images
The length of time it has taken to make the appointment - Hardwick quit the Tigers on May 22 - was latterly slightly complicated by Melbourne’s involvement in the finals.
Yze had been due to have his final interview with the coaching selection panel on Friday and McQualter on Monday with a board meeting on Tuesday night scheduled to make the decision.
With Melbourne playing in a semi-final on Friday night it was agreed it was inappropriate for Yze to be distracted by meeting with Richmond and his interview was postponed to Tuesday. There was insufficient time to digest the final interviews and make a recommendation to the board in time for Tuesday night’s meeting.
The panel made a recommendation to the board on Thursday.
The choice was between McQualter whom the club knew well and represented essentially a continuance of the same football program that the club has been happy with and Yze who is vastly experienced having been an assistant coach at Hawthorn under Alastair Clarkson before returning to Melbourne to work with Simon Goodwin.
Yze offered the attraction of adding a freshness and new ideas to the football program. He is considered to be tactically astute and has run the coaches box for Melbourne, with Simon Goodwin coaching from the boundary.
Both men’s resumes included involvement in extremely successful programs. Yze was at Hawthorn initially as a development coach and then a line coach and was at the club through the three-peat of flags in 2013-15 before moving to the Demons. He was at Melbourne for the drought-breaking flag in 2021.
McQualter who played at St Kilda during their run of grand final appearances was an assistant to Hardwick for Richmond’s three recent flags.
Richmond’s coaching selection panel comprised CEO Brendon Gale, vice president Henriette Rothschild, general manager of football performance Tim Livingstone and general manager of football talent Blair Hartley, former player Paddy Steinfort and Melbourne Storm football operations boss Frank Ponissi.
Steinfort spent five years at Richmond and is Football Australia’s football director after stints at several North American sports organisations, including the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Eagles.
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