They think cotchin gave up the captaincy because his relationship with Dimma broke down after he left his wife even though he remained captain last year after the news broke anyway.
He then uses Pendlebury and Selwood as examples of old players that have retained their captaincy as further evidence to support their claim even though there’s 10x the examples of older players relinquishing the captaincy for the last few years of their careers.
In fairness those are two separate points.
Pendlebury and Selwood continuing to play well as captains is not used as evidence to support the claim that Cotchin relinquished the captaincy (partly) because of Dimma's infidelity. It's more to say that similar results could have reasonably been expected from Cotchin remaining in the role.
I mean it’s not impossible that his relationship with Dimma broke down and that played a role in him relinquishing the captaincy but isn’t it significantly more probable that he simply stepped down because he’s entering the last 1-2 seasons of his career like so many have done in the past. He’s talked about doing it in the past and after the shocker of a season that was 2021 he probably thought it was the right time to usher in a new era.
Yeah, it's possible. We are working with incomplete information from the outside looking in, and if Cotchin had private reservations about Dimma's conduct he would never make it public, so we are speculating, yes.
By many accounts Brooke and Danielle were and are close. I suspect Brooke would have privately relayed to Cotchin that Dimma's conduct was something she wouldn't expect from Trent, and I doubt she was the only partner to relay such concerns. Family was a big part of the ethos of our club; it's hard to continue to stand up for that and stand up for honesty and vulnerability when the coach you thought you were tight with is sneaking into lockdown hotel rooms after hours having an affair. You'd feel less willing to represent that individual and less willing to lead a program that has had its integrity undermined. Given how family-oriented Cotch is, I imagine it would be a real slap in the face to his self-image and what he thought he had done and was doing at the club.
There are always many reasons why we do things that are known to us and unknown to us. No doubt Cotchin would have had voices in his head saying "is it time to give it away?" anyway, but Dimma's behaviour made it easy to listen to those voices and give it away. I suspect that those voices would have been acknowledged but ignored had Dimma continued to be the coach Cotch thought he was tight with. Humans are very adept at creating rationalizations for their behaviour, which is generally much simpler in its origin and partly unconscious. I reckon Cotch gave it away because of Dimma's affair and overlaid that decision with other rationalizations.
Just my take. Speculation as you say.
