Richmond captain Trent Cotchin brushes aside past finals showings to produce star performanceLAUREN WOOD,
Herald Sun
9 September 2017IT had crossed Trent Cotchin’s mind, but the Richmond skipper brushed aside the ghosts of finals past to deliver a blistering captain’s performance on Friday night.
Richmond reached the finals for three years running from 2013, the third of which being a 2015 MCG elimination final against North Melbourne that saw Ben Jacobs run with Cotchin and restrict the star Tiger to just nine possessions with three kicks.
Fast-forward to Friday night’s 51-point win over Geelong — which secured the rampant Tigers a home preliminary final in a fortnight — and Cotchin set the tone early before going on to gather 20 disposals, lay nine hard-hitting tackles and boot an electrifying captain’s goal.
He said he had learned to accept what had happened from 2013-2015, had grown and a person and, come Friday night, was ready to atone.
“100 per cent it’s popped into my head during the week and having the bye you have that extra week (to think about it),” Cotchin said.
“But you just accept that that happened.
“We’re a different team. I think I’m a different player, and I value different things to what I have in the past. And it’s a different group. It’s good.”
The “proud” 27-year-old said that the team has carried the weight of those disappointments. Not anymore.
“You do (carry that weight) ... not so much in individual performances, but as a team over the last three efforts in finals,” the captain said.
“The reality is, that’s the history, but we’ve just got to focus on the now which we’ve been pretty strong at. And we’ve still got some areas to improve but we look forward to working on those over the next two weeks and waiting eagerly to see who we’ll be playing.”
Former Richmond assistant coach David King said on SEN that the Tigers’ “unique crowd ... want so much for Trent Cotchin to be the star”, describing his performance on Friday night as “constant”.
It is a result, Cotchin said, of both him and Richmond doing its fair share of growing up.
“The basis of that growth is just about guys being comfortable with who they are rather than trying to be someone that they’re not,” he said.
“If you’re constantly just showing up and being yourself — to the world, not just to the football club — then you live a pretty happy life.
“If you’re happy, you typically perform pretty well. We all have our downs at times, but that energy and that environment has helped players bounce back from having those down moments.”
Not only do they now play with the freedom that now sees them in a preliminary final, but the Tigers have learned to live with freedom, too.
“Probably. I think we were probably trying to pigeonhole everyone into being one sort of person,” Cotchin said.
“Now, we complement each other and it’s a real strength.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/richmond-captain-trent-cotchin-brushes-aside-past-finals-showings-to-produce-star-performance/news-story/d78aa4e676b7ab2823db9b31f4151490
