From asking for flexibility to help the growth of his young midfielders, to Noah Roberts-Thomson's exciting debut, Patrick Retschko's impressive endurance and Luke Trainor's growth to earn his spot, coach Adem Yze opens up ahead of Round 10.
On Noah Roberts-Thomson's AFL debut...
"He had a great game in the VFL on the weekend. He deserves his opportunity and I can't wait to see what he can do on an AFL field," Yze said.
"He's a highly talented little forward. He can come up to stoppage and help out; he played midfield in the VFL on the weekend. He was knocking on the door early in the season. Last week he played really well. He gets a chance to go and start his AFL career.
"He's been working really closely with Luke Breust on some of the crumbing techniques and his smarts around goal. Hopefully we can see that at Marvel."
On Patrick Retschko's immediate impact...
"He's been terrific. We know he's highly talented, with high endurance. The fact that he can play long minutes...for him to go and run out games the way he is; high speed, high endurance and getting a lot of the footy [is fantastic]," Yze said.
"He works so hard on his game. He's the last to leave the track and the boys love him and love playing with him."
On a fresh midfield mix between young and veteran Tigers...
"We'll keep giving him [Sam Cumming] that exposure. Kane McAuliffe [injured] not playing this weekend, will give Cumming some opportunity inside," Yze said of Sam Cumming's growth in the midfield.
"We understand that Cumming is a terrific inside midfielder, but he [hits] the scoreboard. He's that type of player that can have high impact inside and forward. We're trying to grow both parts of his game. The opportunity to play midfield will be higher this week.
"Seth Campbell got some [midfield] opportunity last week. We're trying to grow that part of his game as well.
"The priority is winning clearances. We want some exposure to our younger lads, but at the same time, our stoppage numbers have improved over the last month, so our leaders are providing a contest.
"We want access, opportunity and exposure to our young players."
On Luke Trainor's improvement...
"He played the majority of last year, but had a disrupted pre-season. His [lack of senior games] was more management as the reason he wasn't in the team. He's a big part of our future and we couldn't wait to get him back in [last week]," Yze said.
"We know the high talent he's got and what he does bring - the energy, the run off half-back. We love those players that can play tall or small. We knew what he had, we had to manage him through that form slump.
"Now, he's got back in and we need him playing consistent footy, the performance on the weekend [Round 9] is exactly what we expect."
