Trent Cotchin makes up for lost time
June 13, 2008
TEN days was all it took for AFL football to provide Trent Cotchin with a savage reality check.
By last November's national draft, Cotchin's junior career had been so dazzling that many recruiters spruiked him, and not Matthew Kreuzer, as the top selection.
From West Preston under-9s to the Northern Knights at just 16, to captain of the Australian under-17s via Essendon Grammar, Cotchin had dominated at every level.
Even a fractured ankle suffered in the TAC Cup finals did not discourage Richmond from eagerly blurting out his name at the first opportunity.
Then, as Knights teammate Kreuzer was being paraded at Princes Park as the Blues' great white hope, Cotchin began what he had been led to believe would be a straight-forward rehabilitation of his ankle injury.
He quickly found out football would test him earlier than even he could have anticipated.
"Before I got drafted I was supposed to be two or three weeks away from running, and I started jogging one and a half weeks into the pre-season and my achilles got inflamed after my second run on the treadmill," Cotchin said.
"From then on it was just trying to get it right with different things like injections and the like.
"I just tried to do as many extra bike and pool sessions as I could, but there are only so many you can do. You get sick of swimming pretty quickly, seeing the same line on the bottom of the pool every lap."
Richmond tried all manner of remedies, yet the grinding pain in Cotchin's ankle would not abate.
As the summer sun shone on Punt Rd and his fellow draftees gained bulk and stamina, Cotchin had to bide his time.
"It was pretty frustrating. You would do your sessions early in the morning and then everyone else would train. It was hard; you just wanted to prove yourself," he said.
"Then eventually it got better. We worked out that I had to take it without too much movement, more just hold it (still) while I strengthened the calf.
"That's what I did, and it slowly got better and better. Then once it was right to start running, I realised it was still three months before I played footy, so it was definitely frustrating."
By the time the achilles pain eased, Cotchin had whiled away an entire pre-season.
And as he started the baby steps on his way to full fitness, Kreuzer, Fremantle's Rhys Palmer and Hawthorn's Cyril Rioli spent the early rounds establishing themselves as the pre-eminent juniors of the new crop.
All of which makes Cotchin's four weeks of senior football with Richmond even more astounding. In that month, he has closed the gap with such authority that even Tiger insiders who predicted excellence from Cotchin are daring to hope for more.
Off only a four-week training block, then four games with VFL affiliate Coburg, Cotchin has played with a level of assurance that is scary.
Nothing will distract Richmond fans baying for success, but his 17-possession first half against Adelaide last weekend might have come close.
"The wait was pretty hard, but it was also exciting," Cotchin said.
"I saw my mates playing AFL footy, and I was really excited for them and wanted to be out there doing the same things they were doing.
"Rhys Palmer was averaging 24 touches or whatever, and it's an amazing first year, and hopefully he can continue that.
"Kreuz and (Bulldogs No. 5 pick) Jarrad Grant both had caravans in the same caravan park in Echuca, so I know them really well.
"I feel like I am getting better every week. I am still a fair way off 100 per cent, but I can't wait to have next year's pre-season under my belt to see how much more I can work with a platform beneath me."
Cotchin, only just eligible for last year's draft, looks the complete all-rounder.
He has pace, evasiveness, hits targets on both sides of his body, has superb judgment, and is a voracious learner.
In a brilliant opening term against the Crows, his first possession was a hospital handpass when he could have fired on goal.
A minute later he was making amends by going back with the flight to spoil in front of Robert Shirley, keeping the ball in Richmond's forward line.
Then midway through the quarter he ran on to a Jake King handball in the same position as his earlier mistake and threaded a classic left-foot goal.
Cotchin, Kreuzer and Co form what is likely to be one of the great top-10 draft collections of recent times.
All bar developing talls Jarrad Grant, Ben McEvoy and Patrick Dangerfield - who is still playing TAC Cup - have made their debuts.
And after just 11 rounds of their debut season, Kreuzer, Chris Masten, Cale Morton, David Myers, Palmer, and pick 13 Rioli look stars of the future.
Critically, in an era of brash, flash, bling-laden kids, football's junior coaches seem to have rid these juniors of the big-head syndrome.
Kreuzer is as down to earth as they come; Myers, Cotchin and Morton are all assured but level-headed; and McEvoy is a big country kid stripped of ego.
They are probably well aware of how good they will become, but they are either reluctant to show it or devoid of the look-at-me ethos of so many of their peers.
Cotchin, who lives with Tigers captain Kane Johnson after a childhood in Wollert, north of Melbourne, credits parents Peter and Kath with keeping his feet on the ground.
The Herald Sun caught up with Cotchin at a midweek coaching clinic for the Craigieburn Football Club, where the Tiger junior seemed genuinely chuffed to be encouraging scores of kids not much younger than himself.
"It's your family and everyone else around you. Even at the club, you won't get a big head there because they always put you down, but you have to be yourself," he said.
"Some people get through with being big-headed, but I like playing it pretty low (key)."
Cotchin's goal of playing senior games has been re-assessed. He is now determined to keep his spot all year.
He said the first half against Adelaide had instilled key lessons about what it took to thrive in AFL football.
"It was weird. I think it made me think, 'If this is how you win the footy, by working hard, then I am going to do it'. It was a good learning point," he said.
"I watched the game with the coaching staff and seeing how much harder I worked from the week prior, it just makes a massive difference.
"It's definitely not easy, but the ball falls into your hands when you are working harder."
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23856579-19742,00.html
