Tigers will ease Cotchin into gamerichmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen | Fri 12 February, 2010RICHMOND young gun Trent Cotchin is expected to play at least 50 per cent of the opening NAB CUP game against Hawthorn on Saturday night as he works to be fit for round one.
With an extended bench available during NAB Cup games, Richmond will rotate heavily to protect the 19-year-old.
Cotchin trained away from the main group at Friday's light run at Punt Rd, kicking and handballing with assistant coach Wayne Campbell for 15 minutes before disappearing inside.
The Tigers are being ultra-cautious with Cotchin, who is now in his third year, after he missed almost all of his first two pre-seasons with achilles problems, and then missed the last four games of 2009 with a hip injury.
With Cotchin on a modified program that has seen him training twice a week over summer, the Tigers are keen to give him an extended run to dispel rumours about his fitness.
Coach Damien Hardwick said Cotchin was over the worst of his problems.
"He has been outstanding," Hardwick said on Friday morning at Punt Rd. "We don't want to put him in a hole that he can't get out of, so we just have to be slow with Trent, and his body will catch up at some stage.
"He's had a great pre-season."
Hardwick, who was an assistant at Hawthorn, faces up against his former boss in Saturday night's game.
While he admits it will be a slightly strange feeling he is looking forward to the challenge.
"There are some things that I know they do," Hardwick said. "They're a formidable opponent, and probably one of the teams which is going to challenge this year, so it's a great test for our guys first up.
"There's going to be times where we play it really well, but due to inexperience there's going to be times when we don't cope with it so well.
"Our ball movement's really important, defensively we're looking for some things, so it's broken down on a quarter-by-quarter basis for us."
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