The panel made a recommendation to the board on Thursday.

The choice was between McQualter whom the club knew well and represented essentially a continuance of the same football program that the club has been happy with and Yze who is vastly experienced having been an assistant coach at Hawthorn under Alastair Clarkson before returning to Melbourne to work with Simon Goodwin.

Yze offered the attraction of adding a freshness and new ideas to the football program. He is considered to be tactically astute and has run the coaches box for Melbourne, with Simon Goodwin coaching from the boundary.

Both men’s resumes included involvement in extremely successful programs. Yze was at Hawthorn initially as a development coach and then a line coach and was at the club through the three-peat of flags in 2013-15 before moving to the Demons. He was at Melbourne for the drought-breaking flag in 2021.

McQualter who played at St Kilda during their run of grand final appearances was an assistant to Hardwick for Richmond’s three recent flags.

Richmond’s coaching selection panel comprised CEO Brendon Gale, vice president Henriette Rothschild, general manager of football performance Tim Livingstone and general manager of football talent Blair Hartley, former player Paddy Steinfort and Melbourne Storm football operations boss Frank Ponissi.

Steinfort spent five years at Richmond and is Football Australia’s football director after stints at several North American sports organisations, including the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Eagles.

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