It was a tough initiation for new Richmond coach Adem Yze in yesterday’s opening round loss to Gold Coast, with the Tigers going down by 39 points.
Yze, however, was proud of the team’s fightback after trailing by 67 points late in the second quarter and having scored only one goal to that stage.
Richmond piled on seven unanswered goals to cut the deficit to four goals early in the last quarter, and get the Tiger Army roaring, before the Suns steadied to take the four points first-up this season.
“We were all over the shop in the first half on all three phases and our players know that,” Yze said in his post-match press conference.
“They smashed us at stoppage, we couldn’t lock the ball in the front half, and we couldn’t get the ball back off them when they had it.
“Credit to them, they played really well in the first half, everything went right for them.
“We went into our shells a little bit . . . It was pretty quiet out there.
“But I just really was proud of our players in their response. . . It could have been an horrendous result in the end. We gave ourselves a shot at it.
“It looked like a Richmond game in the second half.
“We flipped the script on territory, we scored from stoppage and our boys just played the way that we want to play.
“So, we’ll review the first half. Our boys are really honest . . . they’re not happy with the way that they started, and we’ll review that.”
“In the end, whether we win the game or whether we lose the game, we’re going to review the game really honestly . . .
“We’ve got a game in five days, and we’ve got to move on really quickly. So, we’ll learn from it and get ready for Carlton.”
Yze highlighted several individual player positives out of the match . . .
“Noah Balta going into the ruck in the second half, I thought was terrific. He’s going to have to do that anyway.
“Sam Naismith, in his first game for the Club, he toiled away and fought hard.
“(Debutant) Seth Campbell could have kicked three or four (goals) today. Didn’t look out of place, which is good.
“Josh Gibcus, first game back for a long time, he’ll be better for the run as well.”
