Some Tigers unwilling to stand up, says CotchinMichael Gleeson
The Age
26 April 2016Richmond had some players who were unwilling to stand up when the moment demanded it, captain Trent Cotchin said as he tried to make sense of yet another early-season Tiger loss.
The deeply frustrating start to the year left the team in a hole they needed to climb out of through consistent effort, the Tigers skipper said in the rooms after the 33-point loss to Melbourne on Sunday.
"Frustrating is an understatement. You hate losing games of footy, you play to win," he said.
"We put a lot of focus on getting a good start to the year, but the reality is we are 1 and 4 and we've put ourselves in a bit of a hole."
Asked what he saw as the cause of the problem, Cotchin said the players and coaches had discussed that question in the rooms straight after the game.
"It's the inconsistency of effort throughout the team [that is the problem], whether that be contested ball or a missed tackle or a fundamental skill error," he said.
"I know we have spoken about it for weeks. You can train them as much as you like during the week but guys just need to stand up in the moment and at the moment we just have a few guys who just aren't willing to do that.
"The reality is when you have some young guys in there they are expected to perform, as are the leaders, so we just need to continue getting better as a group and challenge guys that are making those mistakes to improve them during the week and execute them on game day."
Cotchin said his side had a fair share of the ball, with the play in their half of the ground long enough to make an impact against the Demons but they were too easily scored against.
"It was played in our half a lot of the time but they just got easy goals out the back a lot of the time, but credit to Melbourne they played really well."
Cotchin said the experience of starting poorly in the past two seasons yet making the finals was disappointing in that the team had repeated their past experience but those years also gave them confidence they could turn the season around.
"I would hate to think any of our players would have that thought (that the season was almost cooked) in their head at the moment," he said.
"I would be disappointed as a leader of our group that one and four is time to give up on a season, we have been there before so we know it can turn."
Richmond's on-field leadership has been criticised this year most notably after the loss to Collingwood when they gave up a lead in the dying minutes. Cotchin was personally chided for that game with critics arguing he had amassed possession but had not had enough impact.
"It's part and parcel of the job. I am the leader of a big club that everyone loves seeing wining but also loves seeing losing so you have to take the good with the bad."
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-tigers-captain-trent-cotchin-laments-unwilling-teammates-20160425-goe9lc.html
