Richmond coach Adem Yze has lauded Richmond triple-premiership player Dion Prestia as an on-field coach ahead of his last game for the Tigers on Saturday against St Kilda, and isn't shocked that other clubs will ask about his future.
Prestia has been linked to playing one more season at a third club, and Yze believes he would be capable of offering something. The Giants have been floated as a potential option given the pre-existing relationship with GWS coach Adam Kingsley.
"(I wouldn't be) shocked. Other teams are looking at that. I know what value he has off the field, but that's his decision, and he'll make that decision post this game. His value to us over the last few years has been terrific," Yze said.
"There might be a team out there that thinks he'd be the cream on top and he'd add value to any team."
Both he and fellow three-time flag great Nathan Broad will play their last game in the yellow and black on Saturday, on a day the club will also celebrate forward Tom Lynch's 250th game.
Prestia was the last player signing autographs and taking selfies with fans at Richmond's captain's run on Friday morning at Punt Road, soaking in the gratitude of a hearty turnout to send him off.
"He's been in discussions with the club for a little while and once they made that decision, it is an emotional week and knowing 'Broady' was finishing up as well and knowing we get the opportunity to celebrate another great Richmond man in 'Lynchy'...we get the opportunity to do them proud with the way we go about it tomorrow," Yze said.
"He's been a pleasure to coach. Whenever you get a player who sees the game so well and can educate on the field, you feel like you've got a coach out there helping so that part of it is an amazing trait to have.
"At the same time, you want guys to set the standard and train with intensity and purpose, and he does that as well, and he cares so much about his teammates by caring and spending time with younger teammates and trying to fast-track their development off the field as well, so he ticks the boxes about players you love to coach."
Richmond is coming off an excellent fortnight, beating West Coast and playing a Richmond style of footy against Adelaide where they gave themselves opportunities to win.
Harry Armstrong and Luke Trainor will bolster the Tigers, the former for his first game since Round 3 as he has battled a foot injury, the latter back from suspension.
Sam Lalor, too, is "cherry ripe to go" after being a watch earlier in the week, training strongly on Thursday after having copped a knock in a quiet outing against Adelaide.
Yze resisted calling the last fortnight the best block of form they have had this season but indicated it has given them a strong platform to finish the season well.
"We want to keep building on what we've been building on in the last three weeks," Yze said.
"We feel like we've got our game in a pretty good space - on the weekend, we were really flat with the end result but the process was right and we played a consistent brand of front-half footy against a finals team in Adelaide...we expect to play another consistent brand of footy this weekend so we're going to build this up and we know the way we want to play."
The coach was criticised for a pair of coaching moves against Adelaide during the loss: not evening up the numbers in Richmond's forward line when talismanic Adelaide skipper Jordan Dawson played as a spare defender, and not tagging Izak Rankine who turned the game in the second half.
"Izak Rankine played a terrific game. We had a plan around him; whether we executed that perfectly, probably not," Yze said.
"Jordan Dawson played behind the ball for the whole second half, and we kicked 3.8. We won time in half; he had one intercept mark.
"I don't think he was the reason we didn't win the game. We had ample opportunity in the last quarter to win the game and hit the front, and we missed those opportunities.
"It was a credit to the way we played to force them to put their captain in the back half, so we stand by the way we played. If we get an opportunity to win the game late, we're playing the right way."
