Richmond’s Trent Cotchin has overseen a Tigers turnaround that might make him footy’s best skipper Max Laughton
FOX SPORTS
July 16, 2015 Trent Cotchin polls three Brownlow votes for a 31 disposal, five goal performance in a win against St Kilda. The victory is Richmond’s fourth for the year.
The Tigers skipper would poll six more votes in the next six games as his club completed a nine-game winning streak to reach the finals. Before that win over the Saints, Richmond had a 0.6% chance of playing finals, according to Champion Data.
Since Round 15 of last year, Richmond has won 18 of 24 games, a record only bettered by Fremantle and Sydney. They currently sit fifth, just a game out of the top four, and looking like making the finals for the third straight year.
That would mean a finals berth in each of Trent Cotchin’s first three seasons as captain. The last Tigers captain to take the club to finals in three straight years was Royce Hart.
Not only has the club improved, but so has Cotchin. In 2014, he became the youngest player in club history to win three best-and-fairest awards.
He has received 83 Brownlow votes in his career, 78 of them in the past four seasons. His career average of 0.64 votes per eligible game is seventh best of all active AFL players.
Five of the players ahead of him have had more games in their prime, and more chances, to receive votes — the other is Nat Fyfe.
Richmond has unintentionally made chaos their trademark. In recent decades, they’ve been the club of wooden spoons, 150-point losses, microwaved memberships and fence jumping.
So as the Tigers gain respect in the footy world, not just on-field but off it as well, how much of the credit can go to Cotchin? And does the improvement he’s overseen as skipper make him the in-form captain in the AFL - even near the top of the list?
Here’s why we think the answer could be yes.
THE FORMTWO straight finals berths leading to two straight disappointing exits has left a bitter taste in the Tiger Army’s collective mouth.
But for a group maturing into its prime, they’ve been the prerequisite experience for greater success.
The Tigers’ current 9-5 record equals their best performance this far into a season since 1995. A win this weekend against St Kilda puts the club on track for its best season since the Preliminary final berth.
Jason Dunstall asked on Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night if the Tigers have a chance at the premiership this season.
“Their form is as good as anyone’s right now,” Dunstall said.
It’s a difficult proposition, considering the teams ahead of them, but they’re teams they’ve beaten before. The Tigers have actually won each of the last three times they’ve faced the side on top of the ladder.
According to Gerard Healy and Jonathan Brown, it all comes back to Cotchin.
“Their skipper is having a fantastic two or three months,” Healy said.
Brown agreed, saying “Cotchin’s taken his game to another level especially in the leadership stakes.”
“He spoke to us after the game (on Friday night) — he’s trying to play with a lot more aggression, and he’s probably riding the fine line a little bit … I think he’s been outstanding.”
Cotchin is recording the best numbers of his captaincy, with high averages in disposals (26.4 per game) and goals (0.9).
That attacking power has been particularly important for a club that is allowing its fewest points per game since the premiership season of 1967, but has struggled to score over the past couple of years, averaging just 84 points per game this season.
Cotchin currently sits tied for seventh in betting for the Brownlow Medal.
THE LEADERSHIPRICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick was full of praise for Cotchin last week after a stellar run of form that has helped the Tigers win seven of their last eight contests.
“There’s a reason we made him captain,” Hardwick said.
“The way he leads by example both on and off the field has been profound, and he’s only going to continue to grow in that role, as all good leaders do.
“He was captain at a relatively young age for a player of his ilk, and we expect him to improve every year. He’s still got some work in areas that we’re continuing to develop him in, as we are with me as coach and our football staff overall.
“He’s been fantastic, and the best thing about Trent is when he leads, he leads by example, so we’ve been really impressed.”
Teammate Jack Riewoldt agreed, telling the club website that he’s grown into the role of captain.
“You can tell that he knows how important he is as the leader of the group.
“As the captain, he’s able to basically pick the side up, put it on his shoulders and drag us over the line. We saw it in the third quarter against Sydney, when he had five score involvements and 11 touches in a quarter.
“I think he’s really starting to develop into the leader we know he can be, and why we selected him as the captain.”
Defender Jake Batchelor said of his performance against GWS that “you couldn’t ask for a better leader’s game.”
Known to be more reserved than most footy players since coming into the league, Cotchin spoke in the opening week of the season of the need to educate himself about his teammates’ differing interests.
Discussing the issue of illicit drugs in footy, Cotchin said how he is not a “nightclub goer” but has tried to learn about the situations that confront players who are.
“But the reality is a lot of young people like getting out there and chasing a bit of tail and so forth, and I just need to understand that and the reasons why they do that and just try to educate them on what acceptable behaviour is,” he told SEN.
“I think it gets back to your relationships with all your players and knowing exactly what’s happening within our team and making sure we’re looking out for each other.”
Knowing his teammates better might just have taught him a thing or two about his own game.
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