‘Won more than us’: Coach pile-on baffles

Beveridge has been the focal point of mass criticism this week after a fourth loss in five games to Hawthorn last week left his team with a 3-5 record and a must-win game against the Tigers who have registered just a single victory in Yze’s first season in charge.

Yze’s maiden campaign has been cruelled by a steady stream of injuries to key players and he said he’d reach out to his “good friend” Beveridge as a show of support amid a pile on that he doesn’t think is deserved.

But come Saturday, Yze said it would be “on for young and old” with little match-day empathy for Beveridge, whom he worked with at the Hawks when both were assistant coaches.

“I don’t see how they are under more pressure than us, they’ve won more games than us,” Yze said on Thursday.

“They are under some media pressure, but to be fair, our players weren’t happy with the way we performed (in last week’s loss to Fremantle).

“I am surprised by the level of attacks. He’s a good friend of mine, and you hate seeing that.

“Not many teams have won a flag in the past few years and they are one of them.

“That sort of scrutiny is always going to be there on coaches. I feel for him and I’ll reach out to him, but this weekend it will be on for young and old.”

The Tigers will get back up to three of those injured players for the clash, including veteran midfielder Dion Prestia, who was held back in his return from a hamstring issue given his age and his history of soft-tissue problems.

“He was throwing his hand up for last week, but we had to give him the extra week of training,” Yze said.

Noah Balta will also return after he “trained the house down” last week and will play forward to bolster the scoring options for the Tigers who have been limited with focal point Tom Lynch sidelined.

Yze also dismissed any suggestion his players were being treated harshly by the umpires after the free kick data released this week showed the Tigers had the second least amount awarded to them while also giving away the second most across the competition.

“To be fair, it’s on us,” he said.

“We’ll train our contest and our technique and we are constantly looking at if we are holding in marking contests or not getting low and hard enough around the contest and tackling.

“The majority of those mistakes are on us. The umpires are doing a great job.”