AFL 2024: Richmond ponders how to use Dustin Martin in second half of season
Richmond superstar Dustin Martin could be managed out of several matches in the second half of the season as the Tigers negotiate a series of short breaks between games.
Coach Adem Yze said six-day breaks every fortnight until round 23 would challenge how the club managed its remaining fit older players.
He suggested Martin, 33, would be unlikely to travel to Perth for the Tigers’ round 17 clash against Fremantle if he was picked to face Carlton on Sunday.
“(Martin) will train (Thursday) and we’ll sit down with him later this afternoon and work out a plan,” Yze said.
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“He’s going to be one of those players who we’ve got to decide with … we’re starting to prepare for eight-day breaks and six-day breaks.
“If he plays this weekend, there will be a high risk that he might not be able to play against Freo, so we’ll sit down and try to map out a plan for a lot of those older guys, and he’ll be one of those.
Richmond’s fixture means Dustin Martin could struggle to play consecutive games in the back half of 2024. Michael Klein Credit: News Corp Australia
“We’ll finalise that today whether he plays this weekend or the week after, but most likely he’ll struggle to play both.”
Yze expected luckless spearhead Tom Lynch to return quickly after a two-week lay-off for a minor hamstring strain he suffered against Hawthorn, and defended the club’s call to bring him back from a hamstring tendon injury in his other leg before the mid-season bye.
“We are (confident), and the fact he had a really strong month of training before he came in – that was the reason why we played (Lynch) before the bye,” Yze said.
“He was ready … in hindsight, you look at it and you see an extra 15 days to play this weekend, but if you watched him train … it was just like, ‘this guy’s ready’.
“It was unfortunate that he’s had a little tweak on the other side. It’ll be probably a two-week lay-off … no doubt the volume of work he got in before that was really impressive, and we can’t wait to get him back out there.”
Yze said Richmond would make a decision with triple premiership defender Dylan Grimes on his future towards the end of the season after the 32-year-old underwent a back operation this week.
“He’ll make that decision later in the year and so will we. We’ll have that discussion with him, but we can see when he’s not in the team how important he is to us,” Yze said.
“We’ll just see how he pulls up from this operation – hopefully, later in the year, he’ll be back on his feet and getting some training in, and then we’ll make that decision as a footy club.”
Yze said Samson Ryan was set to miss the Blues clash along with Lynch, which could force the Tigers to “get creative” with their key position players once again.
He said mid-season draft recruit Jacob Blight was firmly in the frame for a baptism of fire against Carlton twin towers Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay.
“He’s in good form and if we pick him, we feel like he’ll be able to impact at AFL level, which is really impressive for a young kid who’s walked into our footy club three weeks ago,” Yze said.
“He is 21, he’s a strong lad and he’s been playing WAFL footy, so he was always going to come in and hopefully impact straight away.”