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Steve Larkin

Yze says Lynch should play on, marvels at Butters' form

Tiger star Tom Lynch should have his sights set on playing on next year, his coach says. (Dylan Burns/AAP PHOTOS)

Richmond's veteran spearhead Tom Lynch is being urged by his coach to continue playing on another one-year deal.

Lynch falls off-contract at the end of the season but Adem Yze is certain the soon-to-be 34-year-old has more footy in him.

"No doubt," Yze told reporters on Friday.

Yze
Richmond coach Adem Yze has no doubt Tom Lynch should continue his career. (Adam Trafford/AAP PHOTOS)

"Those discussions will happen at the end of the year.

"But his form when he plays and the ripple effect of when he plays, with our really young forward line ... I will be pushing for the fact that what he brings on and off the field, no doubt he has got some footy left in him, for sure."

Lynch, who fractured his larynx in round 11, returns to the Tigers lineup for their Saturday night MCG fixture against a resurgent Carlton.

"We were never going to take any risk with him or push it any harder, irrelevant of what we're going through (on-field)."

While Yze seeks to secure Lynch's future, he's batting away queries surrounding Richmond's pursuit of Zak Butters.

Butters
Richmond are among a big batch of clubs chasing Port Adelaide dynamo Zak Butters. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

Port Adelaide's acting captain is weighing multimillion dollar offers from the Tigers, Western Bulldogs and Geelong among others.

"I can't think about things like that," Yze replied when asked about the chase for Butters.

"It's amazing, he has been in terrific form while this is all happening so you watch it and marvel at the type of player he is.

"But that's the landscape we live in, there's a lot of players right now that are out of contract.

"We went through it with Liam Baker a couple of years ago, so in the end he (Butters) will make his decision.

"We have got to plan around beating Carlton this weekend."

But Yze said the Tigers were preparing to soon hit the market for mature talent.

"Whether we bring players in this year or next, we will start to think about that to add to our list that we have got right now," he said.

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