Richmond President John O’Rourke has reinforced the importance of winning, after the Tigers snapped an eight-game losing streak with Sunday’s 11-point triumph over West Coast.
Speaking on the ABC on Monday, the President said coach Adem Yze was delighted to see his players get the nourishment of a win after all the hard work they’ve been putting in.
"I think it is important for him [Yze] to win but for him it was about seeing his young players get the benefits of winning and celebrating the winning and getting reward for effort,” O’Rourke said.
"Always great to sing that song, and it hasn't happened too often lately, so we'd take the win for sure.”
O’Rourke also backed the journey the Tigers are on, and the plan Yze is helping to implement.
"Adem's very calm behind the scenes about where we're at…he will coach to 100 games, I can assure you of that,” O’Rourke said.
"We're less than two years into a significant rebuild, if you go back, it was really at the end of 2024 that we made the big decision to go deep in the draft and trade out some players. I think four of the top six teams at the moment have all done a similar thing and they've taken four or five years to get back into contention.
"We do have to be a bit patient. We've had unavailability of players, but we will see, and we fully expect, improvement over those next two to three years, and I think you saw some glimpses of the young players coming through [on Sunday].
"I think Adem's in a good place and understands that and we understand it.
"We're very understanding of the way the system works and what it means to get 40 and 50 games into our players, and we won't make judgement calls on where we sit until we see that through.
"We'll keep learning and fine tuning and making changes and supporting him where we can, but I think we've got to get to the end of that period before we say has the strategy worked or not."
O’Rourke also dismissed the notion that securing a higher draft pick is more important than winning.
"Adem talked during the week about the importance of winning habits and celebrating a win for a young team,” O’Rourke said.
"The draft will sort itself out, with the compromises in the draft with father-sons and academies and things, we'll have a good draft hand regardless. We take the win every time.
"We're going to be in that top end of the draft, and there's quality there, our advice at this stage is that, the top 10 of the draft looks very strong this year, and the whole first round. Winning's really important for a young team at this juncture."
