Damien Hardwick says Trent Cotchin, Richmond leaders, don’t have an issue in finalsHerald-Sun
September 27, 2015DAMIEN Hardwick will back Richmond’s leaders to stand up in finals again despite a disastrous performance this year.
Captain Trent Cotchin was held to an equal career-low nine disposals by Kangaroos tagger Ben Jacobs and senior players including Brett Deledio and Troy Chaplin were well down on their home-and-away form.
Cotchin had 16 disposals in last year’s elimination final against Port Adelaide and 26 and two goals against Carlton in 2013.
Asked if the Tigers had an issue with on-field leadership in September, Hardwick answered: “Absolutely not.
“They didn’t have a great day. That happens. The Swans, they went out in straight sets as well, did their leaders not perform? The reality is sometimes you just meet a better side on the day and you don’t play as well as you’d like.
“Unfortunately these things happen, it’s what you learn from it and how you move on from it that’s important.”
In a lengthy interview on SEN radio, Hardwick hinted Richmond was in the market for Gold Coast bad boy Harley Bennell, said Ben Lennon was a required player, defended his decision to pick underdone pair Ben Griffiths and Reece Conca against the Kangaroos and declared finals matches were no bigger for his players than home-and-away games.
“Round 1 (against Carlton), then we play the Dreamtime game, we play a game against Collingwood — we’re the Richmond footy club, we play big games on a weekly basis.
“It’s unfair to say a finals game is more important than a regular season game, I know people think it is but the reality is you go out to win 100 per cent of the time.”
The Tigers coach said the loss to North Melbourne carried an extra sting because he gave his team a chance to go deep in September — if they could get past the Roos.
“I’ve got no doubt this will sting our players. We’ve made finals other years, but I think this is the year we were close.
“We thought North were always going to be our hardest challenge. We’ve played really well against Sydney over the years, even up in Sydney. We were really looking forward to giving ourselves another chance to beat West Coast.
“North, as soon as they beat us, I knew they’d beat Sydney as well.”
Hardwick didn’t name Bennell but said clubs could afford to take risks on players with off-field issues.
“Every club has ratbag characters, if the majority of your football team are stable players you can afford to get in a few.
“There is a tipping point if you get too many bad characters into your club it goes the wrong way.
“If the guy has elite ability and suspect character you’ll look at him ... it’s all about ability.”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/finals-2015-damien-hardwick-says-trent-cotchin-richmond-leaders-dont-have-an-issue-in-finals/story-e6frf3e3-1227545106073
