Adem Yze: Can Richmond Make Training Harder to Read than Match Day?

Richmond could spend a summer looking immaculate at training and still discover in Round One that its players do not know what to do when an opponent changes the picture. Every set drill can be completed cleanly if the pass, movement and next option are predictable. But AFL football does not promise any of those conditions. Adem Yze's challenge for 2027 is not simply to increase the intensity of preseason sessions. It is to make the Tigers solve decisions difficult enough that match day no longer feels like the first time they have encountered the problem.

A player can learn a running pattern by repetition without learning how to decide when that pattern is appropriate. If the defender closes the expected lane a fraction earlier or the next receiver shifts position, excellent training execution may turn into hesitation under pressure. In the full RTSSG Members investigation, we examine what it actually means to make training harder to read and why execution is a recognition problem before it becomes a skill problem. We ask how Richmond can tell whether a young Tiger understood the situation or merely remembered the next step in a familiar drill.

Can players execute a drill perfectly without recognising the real problem?

There is a temptation to simplify every football problem for developing players: announce the upcoming movement, allow the intended receiver to start in a comfortable position and repeat until the ball travels beautifully. Such practice can build a basic skill but may leave the player helpless when the opposition disguises its intention. In the full feature, we dissect how young Tigers can be fast-tracked without being shielded from the real decision and what information the coach should deliberately withhold. We look at when uncertainty makes learning more valuable and when it becomes pointless confusion.

Making practice harder does not mean throwing players into chaotic exercises where nobody understands the task. Yze must decide how much unpredictability a young side can absorb before the lesson disappears. Fatigue creates another risk: a drill can become so exhausting that players are rehearsing survival rather than intelligent recognition. In our Members investigation, we examine how much confusion is useful, how fatigue should be introduced and how training can remain a learning environment rather than a punishment. We ask what the coaches should alter when every failed repetition produces exhaustion but no better decision.

How much uncertainty should Richmond deliberately create at training?

The scoreboard can also distort a rehearsal. If players are rewarded only for winning a practice game, they may abandon the very shape the session was designed to develop. One group might produce a clever score by breaking the shared rule, while the other group follows instructions and loses the short contest. Which performance did Richmond want? In the full feature, we look at how match-simulation scoring can support training design and why players must become a shared on-field information network. We examine whether the next decision can be communicated quickly enough without every cue coming from the coach.

Under match pressure, the most revealing action often occurs after the first plan fails. Can a defender identify an unanticipated runner, can a midfielder adjust the protection around a contest and can the forwards change their spacing before the opposition has exposed the flaw twice? Those are moments rehearsed poorly by drills with only one correct solution. In the full Members investigation, we dissect the evidence that would show Richmond's training has transferred into match play and how its difficulty should increase as the list learns. We ask whether the Tigers can recognise and respond without waiting for the quarter-time break.

What would prove the game is no longer Richmond's first real test?

Richmond does not need to make every training minute uncomfortable. It needs purposeful exercises that teach footballers to recognise the changing problem rather than repeat a move whose answer they already know. The best sign of progress may not be a flawless preseason highlight reel. It may be the speed with which players recover when the drill stops resembling the plan. In the complete Members investigation, we examine what 2027 must prove about Yze's coaching method. The goal is to make matches demanding, not bewildering.

Read the full RTSSG Members investigation: Adem Yze: Can Richmond Make Training Harder to Read than Match Day?

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