RICHMOND will seek clarification on marking contests involving Tom Lynch after the spearhead's frustration boiled over into a roundhouse strike at Adelaide defender Jordon Butts.
Lynch was disposal-less at half-time, having given away five free kicks and placed under report for his punch. He is a chance to face further sanctions for a follow-up scuffle involving Mark Keane, and also appeared to graze the face of Dan Curtain with his boot in the first term.
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"In the moment, as a coach, you're disappointed. Because a few of them, we had possession and we were out and we're finally looking like we're going to execute, and his frustration spills over," Richmond coach Adem Yze said.
"But in saying that, we're going to seek clarification on the marking contests, because he's such a big man, and they do scrag him, and he's feeling like he's getting held. Then he doesn't, and the ball goes down the other end and we give away three free kicks in aerial contests, in one passage of play.
"We've got to look at all these things, and we've got to help him through it. No excuse in his response, but I understand his frustration.
"We don't want to take that away from him, that's why he's been such a good player for this footy club for such a long time - he's got white-line fever and he wants to win, and he wants to mark and an opportunity to mark every time it goes down the line, because he knows that's his job.
"Especially when he's playing with younger forwards around him, that's heightened. We'll seek clarification on the way it's been adjudicated, but two, we'll make sure we're coaching the right technique and getting guys to fly around him."
In this day and age, coaches roll out the old "I didn't see the incident" without blinking, but Yze seemed genuinely confused when asked about potential replacements for next week's game against Geelong.
"[Playing] without 'Lynchy'? Why's that? Oh okay, I didn't see the incident, but I hope that isn't the case. If it is, we might have to look at Noah (Balta) anyway with 'Kelts' (Mykelti Lefau) going out.
"We've got Tom Sims, and Jacob Bauer played well yesterday, so we've got some tall stocks. We might have to get creative, whether it's Noah or any of our defenders who are happy to go forward."
Lynch spoke to the playing group at half-time, before Yze had raised the issue.
"I haven't seen the incident," Lynch told Channel Seven.
"I didn't want to cause harm or anything like that, I was just trying to get free, and the frustration came out. I gave away too many free kicks and was not good enough as a leader. [I] said at half-time 'Sorry boys, thought we were playing pretty well in that second quarter, and it pretty much stopped the momentum'.
"I was just more frustrated with how he was defending me, I thought. And clearly [his defensive technique] was within the rules because there were no free kicks awarded to me and I went outside the rules. I’ve got to be better."
Yze said Lefau had suffered a minor calf injury in his return game to the top level. Following an ACL tear last May, he had played around a month's worth of VFL footy before his call-up.
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks was pleased with his side's attitude in the face of the undisciplined spotfires, and its ability to shake off some post-bye rust.
"Really mature performance by us, and it's one that's caused us a lot of issues over the past four or five years. We knew our record coming in wasn't strong against them, they'd done a number on us, so coming off the bye, there was a deliberate focus in the things we wanted to get right today, and we did it, our group showed great maturity to get it done," Nicks said.
"It's an area we probably haven't been best at in the past. When we talk about mature and what a mature team does – we're going to stick up for our mates, and we're going to hold our ground, but we're not going to go past that.
"We're going to switch back on and direct our focus back on footy again, and I thought we did that really well. It got quite heated there for a moment, that's sport and why we love sport, but our guys focused back in on the job really quickly."
Adelaide opted to sub out Josh Rachele halfway through the third term as a management decision, and the small forward wasn't thrilled with the decision.
"Joshy is experiencing a bit of soreness at the moment. When you come to the decision you're going to sub and the game's in the position it's in, we're in a position where we have the luxury to make a decision that's medium to longer-term as well," Nicks said.
"We would love to have kept Josh out there, but with a bit of soreness, we didn't take any risks.
"It was an interesting one, Joshy came off and I know he wasn't happy with the decision, like any competitive beast, he wants to keep playing when the team's playing well like they were. We had a good chat on the phone, and he totally understood, and knows why we did it."