Trent Cotchin on SEN --- 26/07/2014 (audio and summary)

[one-eyed]

Richmond captain Trent Cotchin speaks to the boys on Crunch Time after the Tigers beat West Coast by 17 points at Patersons Stadium.

AUDIO: https://soundcloud.com/sen1116/crunch-time-richmond-captain-trent-cotchin

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Summary:

* Always a better trip home when you win.

* Mixture of both feelings about our return to form - we knew we had it in us but it's disappointing that we started our season poorly. We've played decent footy over last two months but the last month we've put in 4 quarter efforts.

* Earlier in the season, we weren't consistent with our efforts at training and during the games. We weren't clicking the way we needed to - whether that be not playing well as a team, our best players not playing well or our mid-tier players not coming through as well as we had hoped. We've raised our standards since and we want to finish off the season following them and take that into 2015.

* The improvement has come from rewarding more the winning behaviours such as running back to help the defence. Energy around the contest has been turned around and we are winning the contested footy now. Bringing that confidence back as a group. We're not young anymore, we've played finals and we want to get back there.

* We consistently hear the Club was successful 30-40 years ago. There's a real competitiveness between the older club. We want to get back to that and encourage that amongst our younger guys so they understand our history (as opposed to our more recent unsuccessful period).

* Encouraging amongst our four walls for us to be the hunters and not the hunted. As loud as the West Coast crowd was, you sort of thrive on that. You love the fact that the opposition supporters are starting to show some real hatred for you. It was like 'we've sort of got them here. They were just that focussed on all the spotfires that were popping up on the field more than the game and I think that's the little mental edge that you're looking for.

* You look at the Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney lesser likes and they play their role. We want that. It increases pressure on spots in the side. We didn't have that but we're now working towards that.

* Message after the Vickery incident? Just for us to stay composed and not get sucked into spotfires.

* Vickery - we love it more when he is playing on the edge. He plays his best footy that way. There's going to be times there's going to be frustrations for him and the team. We'll just support him and each other.

* Incident - Can't really comment other than to say having one of their better players go down obviously helps us. Le Cras showed the most emotion but it wasn't that bad. Both clubs flew the flag which is what you love about footy.

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By the way, Cotch was at the Calder vs Oakleigh TAC Cup game. Spotting for recruiters?

[lamington]

Or.....bringing in Miles made all the difference

[(•))(©™]

or dropping hampson and grigg

[Francois Jackson]

or dropping hampson and grigg

Bang! Correct again

They seem to be forgetting about all the pathetic match day selections including riding maric to the ground so he missed all those games

[one-eyed]

Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin says excellent contested ball work gives club hope going forward
Glenn McFarlane
Herald-Sun
July 27, 2014

IT’S been Richmond’s Achilles heel for much of the season, but Trent Cotchin believes the stat that has caused so much internal angst is the thing that gives him the most hope going forward.

The Tigers controlled the contested possession count at Pattersons Stadium on Friday night, and that was the elixir of their 17-point win over West Coast.

Cotchin said the differential of almost 30 in terms of contested possessions between the two teams made coach Damien Hardwick, who has endured a long and frustrating season, as happy as he has been all year.

“He was pretty proud of the way we went about it,” Cotchin told SEN. “We obviously won the contested possessions by plus 30-odd (it was actually 28), which was really important, especially in those conditions.

“That is something we base our game around. To win it (contested possession count) gets the score on the board for us.

“And in the end, with the scoring shots we had, we should have won by a couple more (goals).”

In many ways, contested possessions have been dirty words around Punt Rd for a fair chunk of this season.

Just 12 months ago the Tigers were sailing along towards a finals appearance off the back of their hard work around the contests, and that was the trademark that their coach wanted them to live — or die — by.

Overall, the Tigers were ranked 3rd in the AFL in 2013 in terms of the contested possession differential — at plus 7.7.

But just as we thought Cotchin and his teammates would head back for another finals appearance, the contested possession count collapsed in the first half of the season, and with it went the Tigers’ own finals hopes — not to mention the confidence of the group.

They slumped to 14th overall in the measurement in the first half of the season before Hardwick rammed home the importance of a second half of the home-and-away fixture that was dedicated to winning that count more often than not.

And that’s what’s happened since Round 13, with Richmond once more pushing themselves to third in the AFL in that measurement, and that’s why the Tigers have been able to turn a lamentable season into one that is reaping a few small gains in the back end.

“The thing that has been encouraging inside our four walls is that we want to the hunters, not the hunted,” Cotchin said.

“You can only start that with intensity from the get-go, and once you have set that standard the precedent is set for the game.”

Cotchin said it was hard to put his finger on why the Tigers had failed to get out of the blocks for much of the early part of the season.

But he is confident what the club is doing now will stand it in good stead as it gears up to chase more scalps in the last five games of the season.

“There were just moments in games (early in the season) where we let ourselves down,” he said. “I think we have come back with a little bit more of a steely resolve.

“The challenge for us is to take that bar to a new level for the rest of the season and carry that into the pre-season, so that we do start better than we did this year.”

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-skipper-trent-cotchin-says-excellent-contested-ball-work-gives-club-hope-going-forward/story-fndv8t7m-1227002587717