Cotch not responsible for Richmond’s choke: Mooney .... (SEN)

[one-eyed]

Cotch not responsible for Richmond’s choke: Mooney

Justin Talent
SEN
06 Apr 2016, 07:19PM

The blame for Richmond’s disappointing loss to Collingwood from a winning position last Friday should be put squarely on all of the Tigers’ 22 players and not just under-fire captain Trent Cotchin, says Cameron Mooney.

The former Cat said the Richmond skipper’s performance in the game, where he had 36 dispsoals

“I think Cotch has been disappointing in a couple of big games and that’s where he gets the heat from but on the weekend, I didn’t think there was too much (wrong),” Mooney said on SEN’s The Run Home.

“His second half in particular with his clearance work and getting the ball forward (was great).”

The premiership winner instead believes that the defeat, where Richmond lost by one point despite leading by 17 points 20 minutes into the final quarter, was the result of poor play from the entire team, especially inside the final three minutes.

“For everyone to just keep whacking away at Cotch, he’s just been an easy target on the back of some poor finals appearances and that’s OK for those ones,” Mooney said.

“But on the weekend I thought that was a bit stiff. I thought over the ground they were poor in those last two or three minutes.”

The former Geelong forward his time at the Cats as an example of how leadership at a team shouldn’t be confined solely to the captain and leadership group.

“Tom Harley to me was one of the best, if not the best captains I’ve ever played under because of the way he could communicate and get the message to the group,” Mooney said.

“Tom Harley didn’t look after the forward line. That was myself and Stevie (Johnson). Tom Harley didn’t look after the midfield group. That was Cameron Ling and Joel Corey. Tom Harley didn’t really even look after the backline by himself, he had Matty Scarlett and Darren Milburn and Corey Enright. So it’s collective.”

Daniel Harford agreed with Mooney, and says that every great team he has known in AFL football has shared leadership responsibilities across the entire ground.

“I couldn’t agree with you more because there is a lot of focus these days on leadership groups and titles in footy, but every great team that I’ve ever known has had players in just about every line who drive the standards and drive what is required from the game in any circumstance,” Harf said.

“Often we talk about leaders and captains and vice captains and that type of thing but if you’re going to be a great team, it is everyone pulling their weight and understanding the situation of being able to react accordingly for the betterment of your team.

“Richmond didn’t do that on the weekend. It was not Trent Cotchin’s fault.”

http://www.sen.com.au/news/afl/04-16/cotch-not-responsible-for-richmond-s-choke-mooney

[Lozza]

Interesting re Mooney's comments aboutt the foward line, midfield and back line looking after themselves leadership wise. There in lies the oroblem with us because as we saw last week they dont seem to operate that way.

It's like in last weeks situation at the backend of the last quarter Cotch would have to call a timeout and remind all the players of their responsibilities like you would to a group of primary school kids. That's the difference, in terms of players having mature football brains and having the initiative to act accordingly in a given situation we appear to be bottom of tbat ladder.

[YellowandBlackBlood]

Good article stating the obvious.
Exactly what I was getting at in the other thread about who should be captain. It is antiquated thinking worrying about who should be captain. We need mature heads all over the ground if we want to win a flag.
Worrying about a single players appeal to certain factions in the playing group is just an excuse to cover up the true problems at the club. The Richmond captain just doesn't have enough on field generals to assist him when the heat is on. The team is just so reliant on him to continually perform that when he doesn't, the lack of on field leadership is magnified.

[tdy]

Its not just him we rely on, we rely on our stars and we have too few of them.  Rance, Lids, Cotch, Dusty, Jack.  We need to lift in the middle tier players, Griffs, Miles, et al

[(•))(©™]

Stfu cam

[Diocletian]

Its not just him we rely on, we rely on our stars and we have too few of them.  Rance, Lids, Cotch, Dusty, Jack.  We need to lift in the middle tier players, Griffs, Miles, et al

Miles steps up more than most.....one of the few who could still hold his head up after last year's EF...

[Stalin]

Its not just him we rely on, we rely on our stars and we have too few of them.  Rance, Lids, Cotch, Dusty, Jack.  We need to lift in the middle tier players, Griffs, Miles, et al

Miles, vlastuin are fairly young, still

Many of our middle players are not available.

Lambert, Lloyd have lifted. It would be good if it's sustainable long term

[(•))(©™]

Lambert has surpassed Ellis and Conca.

[Stalin]

Nothing to write home about but is it ...

[tdy]

Lloyd has been a surprise for me. He gets the ball more it seems when it counts. Lambert was off my radar entirely but Ellis and Conca and Hunt types really do need to improve for us to shake the finals. Remember when St Kilda had the fantastic four. Lowe, Winmar, Burke and Harvey but the rest lifted around them to take them deep into the finals.

[Penelope]

just not deep enough......

[mightytiges]

It's not all the fault of the 'leaders' when one fringe player costs us 5 goals (including 4 in the 3rd quarter) through his schoolboy mistakes alone .

[Willy]

It's not all the fault of the 'leaders' when one fringe player costs us 5 goals (including 4 in the 3rd quarter) through his schoolboy mistakes alone .

Nope. But when a team has a history of lacking composure during crunch moments it does reflect on leadership, both at a coaching and on field level.