Richmond’s new Dusty dilemma is another sign his incredible career is quickly coming to an end

Richmond superstar Dustin Martin could be pulled from several matches in the second half of the AFL season as the Tigers negotiate a series of short breaks between matches.

Coach Adem Yze said six-day breaks every fortnight until round 23 would pose a challenge to how the club deals with the remaining fit veterans.

He suggested it was unlikely the 33-year-old Martin would travel to Perth for the Tigers’ round 17 clash against Fremantle if he was picked to play Carlton on Sunday, June 30.

‘Martin goes to train [Thursday] and we will sit down with him later to work out a plan,” Yze said.

‘He will be one of those players with whom we have to decide. We’re starting to prepare for eight-day and six-day breaks.

“If he plays this weekend there’s a big risk that he might not be able to play against Freo, so we’ll sit down and try to figure out a plan for a lot of those older guys, and he’ll be one of those.

“We will make a final determination as to whether he plays this weekend or the following week, but most likely he will struggle to play both.”

Yze expected hapless spearhead Tom Lynch to return soon after a two-week layoff due to a minor hamstring injury suffered against Hawthorn, and defended the club’s call to bring him back before mid-season from a hamstring tendon injury in his other leg. bye.

Richmond coach Adam Yze said six-day breaks every fortnight until Round 23 would pose a challenge to how the club handles its remaining fit veterans (Martin, pictured after his 300th game)

“We’re confident, and the fact that he had a really strong month of training before coming in, that’s why we played [Lynch] before saying goodbye,” Yze said.

“He was ready… looking back, when you look at it, you see there are 15 extra days to play this weekend, but when you saw him training… it was like, ‘This guy is ready for’.

“It was a shame he had a little change at the other end. It’ll probably be a two-week absence…no doubt the amount of work he’s done before that was really impressive, and we can’t wait to get him back to work.”

Yze said Richmond would make a decision with three-time premiership defender Dylan Grimes over his future towards the end of the season after the 32-year-old underwent back surgery this week.

“He will make that decision later this year, and so will we. We will have that discussion with him, but if he is not in the team we can see how important he is for us,” Yze said.

‘We’ll see how he develops after this operation. Hopefully he will be back on his feet later this year and able to do some training. Then we will make a decision as a football club.’

Yze also said Samson Ryan would miss the Blues clash along with Lynch, which could force the Tigers to get ‘creative’ again with their key position players.

He said mid-season recruit Jacob Blight was firmly in the frame for a baptism of fire against Carlton Twin Towers Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay.

“He is in good form and if we pick him we feel he can have an impact at AFL level, which is really impressive for a young boy who came into our football club three weeks ago,” Yze said.

“He’s 21, he’s a strong lad and he plays WAFL footy, so he was always going to come in and hopefully make an impact straight away.”