VIDEO: Cotchin's 2013 season review
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/2013-10-22/cotchin-2013-reviewSUMMARY:
* Rating my season individually - yeah I was up and down throughout the year and I wasn't satisified with the impact I was having on the games. This year my focus changed from previous years from how I was impacting performance wise to how I was impacting leadership wise. I felt I had a massive learning year and improved as the season went on. Performance wise I felt I didn't have the impact with the quality of football I got and kicking a score as well. So that will be a focus next season.
* I think the team getting to a position where everyone is standing up and playing a role for the side really helps not just the top bracket but the bottom bracket as well. I mean when everyone is pulling their weight - you see all the top sides in the competition do that - that consistency coming through and that's where we want to get to. If you can have a first or second year player having an impact that obviously takes the pressure off a fifth or sixth year player.
* As I've said in all walks of media this year, there's times when leadership can be challenging but there's also times when there's a real positive to it. Look, I knew there was a lot of areas I needed to improve on and fast track my development to benefit the team and myself. I felt there were times during the year that my leadership was challenged. That's probably the best way to prove it. To stand up and do something about it. Whether it's the right or wrong decision at the time, you still make a decision and stand by it. With a young group it's important we make a call and stick by it and try to drag as many guys along with you at the same time. Enjoyed it and there were many learnings from it. I'm looking forward to excelling during preseason and onto next year.
* Really positive home-and-away season. It's our most positive result in the number of years I've been at the Club. Look, it's better winning more often than losing. Really positive results wise. We saw a lot of areas develop as a group. Our defensive group was fantastic; our midfield showed a lot of depth throughout the year and guys stood up at different times; and our forward line saw a couple of new faces and starting to work well as a group. That's the exciting thing for us; we've got so much depth now. The challenge now is to bring people into the Club to challenge that depth but also develop our younger guys so there's always pressure on spots and that develops a healthy culture.
* I think the more footy that we play together as a midfield group, we’re going to start to understand exactly what makes each and every one of us tick. It takes three or four years to get to a point where everyone knows the ins and outs of how we play. We saw Jacko take a massive step forward with his consistency and he showed a lot more composure with the way he played. A couple of our younger guys came in and had a real impact which is fantastic for guys that have been in there for a few years now. The more we work together as a group then blocking around stoppages, reading the hands of ruckmen, and knowing when it’s your time to go, and when it’s your time to defend, is only going to help us in the future.
* Finals footy was an experience. It didn't end in the way we wanted but the energy and excitement that you felt even during the warm-up from our supporters was fantastic. Winning the toss and running back to the group and hearing that roar knowing the biggest game of our careers so far was about to happen, was exciting. I was really looking forward to the opportunity and I thought the boys handled really well the emotion and excitement around the day and the week leading up to it. Hopefully it's an experience that helps us and, as Dimma has mentioned in all his media stuff, we want to be consistent finals performers and making sure we are winning those games of footy 'cause they're the most important of the year. Hopefully it was a big step for us participating in finals but now it's time to actually challenge them. I think a number of guys are different in what drives them through the preseason but there's certainly going to be that burning hole that we let an opportunity slip that will get me through the tough sessions that are going to happen over the preseason. It's hard to answer for everyone but definitely individually I'm still gutted now and I'm sure I'll be gutted through the whole preseason asking the question "what if?". It's now done and you've got to look forward and make sure it doesn't happen again next year.
