Richmond young star Trent Cotchin has tendons of a boy
Mark Stevens | February 03, 2009 11:30pm
TRENT Cotchin faces an uphill battle to be fit for Round 1 as Richmond waits for his boyish tendons to grow into his man's body.
Cotchin is still resting his left achilles tendon injury one year after being restricted by an identical problem on the right side.
Tigers coach Terry Wallace yesterday said Cotchin would need to be playing by week three of the pre-season series to play against Carlton in Round 1 on March 26.
"Round 1 is still not out of the question, but in fairness he'd need to be getting a run on," Wallace said.
"He's going to need luck on his side in the next three weeks."
Wallace would not speculate beyond that, but it appears a return as late as Round 3 or Round 4 is a possibility.
With rumour and innuendo flying around about the exciting 18-year-old, Wallace clarified Cotchin's problem.
"In layman's terms, we've been told he's got a man's muscular and skeletal system and his tendons are still that of a boy," Wallace said.
The Tigers have sought the opinion of specialists and are playing a waiting game on Cotchin.
"We need to go easy on his body and build him up until his tendons can start coping with the stresses of AFL footy," Wallace said.
"Last year, it was one tendon. This year, it's the opposite one. They're both the same injury.
"It's just the nature of his tendons at the moment."
Wallace said Cotchin, determined to build on his brilliant first year, played a role in the latest setback by pushing himself too hard in a personal pre-Christmas training mission.
"This year, in fairness to our strength and conditioning people, it was actually brought on by himself trying to up the ante," Wallace said. "He's got to educate himself as much as others have got to educate him."
Wallace said it was easy to forget that Cotchin does not turn 19 until April - and is only seven weeks older than the Tigers' most recent top pick Tyrone Vickery.
"It's not going to be anything that is a long drawn-out process. It is because he's young," Wallace said.
"It's not something he will be dealing with at 22 years of age."
Wallace said Cotchin was "miles ahead" of where he was last year in overall strength and fitness.
"We've been able to get a lot more cross-training into him," Wallace said.
Wallace said the latest time-out is the third time Cotchin's training load has been pulled back.
When he returns to the track, he will do so under an "in-season" style program of one day of weight-bearing work on his legs, followed by several days of rest.
Cotchin will be watching tomorrow when Ben Cousins makes his Tigers debut in an intra-club practice match at Gosch's Paddock. Wallace said Cousins would play a half.
"Get there early," Wallace said, hinting the Cousins hitout could be over at the long break.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/sport/afl/story/0,26547,25004862-5016212,00.html
