Richmond star Trent Cotchin looks to build player relationships Rebecca Williams
From: Herald Sun
January 14, 2013 RICHMOND skipper Trent Cotchin says he wants to focus on building player relationships under his captaincy at the Tigers.
In his first pre-season as captain since taking the reins from Chris Newman, 22-year-old Cotchin said strong off-field relationships would help deliver results.
"The most important thing in my eyes from a leader's perspective is the way that they train and play and get everything done," Cotchin said. "But I'm also massive on relationships.
"You don't have to be best mates with everyone ... but you have to have something to do with them so you can show a general interest in their life.
"If you can have that relationship going into games and so forth it makes it a lot easier to give someone some constructive feedback - whether it's positive or negative."
Cotchin said the support of the leadership group and Newman had helped him settle into the role.
"I'm quite lucky. You look back to when Newy took over, while there were some senior guys there, the core group really weren't a strong body and didn't have too much to say," he said.
"I've got the backing of not only our leadership group, but the core group are also having opinions on what we're doing in training, what our game plan is looking like.
"It just makes it easier and takes a bit of weight off my shoulders and lets me focus on what I can do and how I can help the team. Everyone else is picking up the slack around me."
Cotchin said the Tigers had shown encouraging training form so far this summer, but he expected a return to the redeveloped Punt Rd Oval to give the group a boost for the final leg of the pre-season.
The players will have their first session on the surface today after six months of work on the ground.
The Tigers had to train at venues around Melbourne including Victoria Park, Craigieburn and Monash University during the $1.9 million redevelopment, which the club's Fighting Tiger Fund helped finance.
The Punt Rd ground has been reconfigured into an Etihad Stadium-sized oval without cricket wickets.
"It will be great to be back at our home ground," Cotchin said. "It's probably come at the perfect time. It is something fresh for us to get us up and about for the last part of the pre-season and then games start in about a month's time.
"We are all just looking forward to firstly getting out here and making use of what our club and our fans have given us the opportunity to do and into the real stuff.
"To have that little bit more area and covering that much more ground is only going to make it that much more beneficial for us going into games."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/richmond-star-trent-cotchin-looks-to-build-player-relationships/story-e6frf9jf-1226553082021
