Cotchin in great pre-season shape 
RICHMOND young gun Trent Cotchin is set for his best pre-season at the club.
Cotchin has battled injury through his first two pre-seasons at Punt Rd, fighting achilles and leg problems that saw him on modified programs designed to protect him from further injury.
This year he will still be in a modified program, but the differences from his teammates' routines will be marginal, and midfield coach Wayne Campbell said he was thrilled to have the 20-year-old back in such good shape.
"This is certainly the best he's started," Campbell said at Punt Rd after the team's first training session of the pre-season.
"In year one he ran in January, in year two he ran in February, and he's out there running and kicking the footy, so certainly as coaches, we're pretty excited by that.
"There's a long way to go, but he's certainly miles ahead of where he was before."
The Tigers added big-bodied midfielder Shaun Grigg to their list in trade week for the loss of medium forward Andrew Collins, and while the 22-year-old hasn't arrived for training - those starting this week are the first- to third-year players - Campbell said the addition of another larger body would help his midfielders.
"He hasn't started yet, but he'll just add to our midfield mix - big body, strong runner, can use the footy - and hopefully he can release some of our better users of the footy, getting it inside and then getting it outside to some better users," Campbell said.
"We're really excited about getting him to come on board - we're sad to lose Andy Collins, but Carlton was interested in him.
"We certainly targeted him, and in the end it was Andy's choice to go, so hopefully we see it as a win-win for both clubs."
Less clear-cut is the future of out-of-favour Essendon midfielder Bachar Houli, who has declared that he wants to head to the Tigers, but with no deal done in trade week, he needs to go via the draft.
Essendon has not yet delisted the out-of-contract 22-year-old, holding onto hopes that it can change his mind, but if not, it will have to delist him either in the first list lodgement on Friday, or the second on November 10th.
Until then, he is unable to train with the Tigers, but Campbell said the club was confident of adding him to their squad, hoping to get him with the third pick in the NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft.
"He's certainly keen to come to the club, so we've still got to wait for the pre-season draft to officially get that done, but he's certainly indicated he's keen to come to Richmond."
Melbourne forward Brad Miller played 133 games for the Demons before he was delisted after the 2010 season, and it looks likely that the Tigers will pick him up as a mature-age rookie, filling the spot occupied by Graham Polak last year.
With just three players who have played in excess of 100 games, the Tigers are desperate for the leadership and maturity that a player like Miller would bring to the group.
Campbell said the 27-year-old wasn't expected to play the full season, but he would be used both as a player and as a pseudo-development coach.
"We're a really young group, we've got a young forward line, he's played some footy, he's an outstanding character and outstanding leader," he said.
"We just think he can help (Jack) Riewoldt and (Ben) Griffiths and these sort of guys, and play some footy, but I don't think we expect him to play 22 games here."
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