More Bucks than Fev, Cotchin set to take big step Michael Gleeson
March 24, 2011After a summer of scandal, Trent Cotchin is a welcome relief.
THIS is not a story of sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling or some other form of hedonistic self-abuse. Yet it is the story of an AFL footballer.
This is the story of Trent Cotchin. There is nothing outrageous to tell of Cotchin other than his formidable talent. On the day of the first bounce of the new season, his is perhaps a story worth telling. It is a simple tale of a young man who is already a very good footballer but who wants to be a great one; a player who has all the tools to achieve his goal.
He is a character more reminiscent of a young Nathan Buckley than a young Brendan Fevola. There is a bit of Robert Harvey in him too. Like a young Buckley, Cotchin has a strikingly uncluttered focus and determination in his plans for life and a belief in the self-flagellating work it might take to get there.
If the Richmond youngster has a flaw it is not of a self-destructive nature. He is a player in a hurry. He owns the house where he lives with his partner, Brooke. He has a cute samoyed puppy, Kuda, and has helped Brooke set up her new child-clothing importation business, Kids Revolution, which has helped his own thoughts turn impatiently to becoming a parent. He has plans in property development but his primary plans are in football and the player he wants to be. He is a leader of his club. He is 20.
''Trent has an acute sense of where he wants to go and how he needs to get there, not just in football but in life,'' Tigers general manager of football Craig Cameron said.
Cotchin is what you want from a footballer at your club in that he is also the sort of person you want turning up at your door inquiring after your daughter. He is the sort of footballer you want in any side you put on the field.
To date, we have only witnessed glimpses of his talent. That is partly because of injury. He has had a full pre-season for the first time this season. Previously he had taken to pre-seasons with an impatience that ultimately led him to injury. It was a Harvey-like drive in that he viewed moments spent not training as chances lost. This year he has done less and it has delivered more. He now feels strong enough to stay in the game longer.
"I was blowing up halfway through the third quarter and not being able to perform to the best of my ability. I think if you looked at the majority of my stats, I faded out in the back parts of games most of the time. Which has been frustrating for me because all you want to do is play your role in the team. It's exciting to think this year I am fitter and can run out those games," he said.
It means he now feels able to deliver the sort of performance he knows is expected of him - by himself and others. It does not surprise to know that one of his closest friends is Carlton's Matthew Kreuzer. They appear cut from the same cloth. Both have a competitiveness and ambition yet remain determinedly modest and relaxed. Both have endured injury. Both are fledglings yet enough has been seen during their short careers to suggest they could fly. Both seem comfortable with the expectations.
''He [Cotchin] gets it about the expectations on him and he is comfortable with that because he knows that when he can get out there, he will be able to meet expectations, not in an arrogant way, but he is comfortable in his ability to play. But the only time you ever see it get to him is when he can't get out there," Cameron said.
The maturing of Cotchin as a fourth-year player means that not only is he more demanding of himself, there are more expectations from his team. A nominated leader, he has been like some of his young teammates in accepting responsibility sooner than might otherwise be the case. Last year, when Chris Newman was forced to miss the Melbourne game, it was Cotchin he asked to captain the team. "It was probably the first real time I thought to myself: 'Yeah, I have been a leader this year' but I put it on myself that it was time to step up and demand a lot of the group and start voicing my exact opinions and thoughts and encourage, I guess," he said.
"At times now, you get a bit overwhelmed by the fact you are speaking in front of the whole group but you have to take it back to the fact you are only trying to better the side and so just have a crack."
There is a corollary in that sense between player and team.
"We have got a young side. Last year was a development year but this year we need to take a step forward so we start gaining that respect back in the competition. We are so confident in what Damien is teaching us and the other coaches are driving us to do on field that if we can play our best footy, stick to the structures we have been training, then I think we can compete with the best of them," he said.
"It is so exciting, I come home most nights after a team review and even if we have lost and go: 'Well, yeah, it was our stuff-ups; it wasn't that other teams are really good but it is our poor play that has let us down'. You say: 'Well, why are we making those mistakes?' Well I suppose we are a little bit younger than other teams and you have to expect to make those mistakes so you can learn from them."
This earnest belief in where his side is going makes Cotchin look almost bewildered at the notion of leaving. There has been significant GWS interest in team mate Dustin Martin, as there is in Melbourne's Tom Scully.
"I know the club felt pressured by the Gold Coast at the time of my last contract but deep down you know you are never going to leave the club and that is where you want to be. Richmond is so exciting for what the future holds for us so why would you want to be anywhere else?"
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/more-bucks-than-fev-cotchin-set-to-take-big-step-20110323-1c6rc.html
