THERE’LL BE NO DOGHOUSE FOR TIGERS, SAYS COTCHIN

TRENT Cotchin says Richmond’s “unique” brand will help the Tigers avoid a Western Bulldogs-style premiership hangover.

Cotchin and the Tigers’ senior players, including Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin, started their 2018 campaign with a training session at Punt Rd yesterday.

Jack Riewoldt, still in Tasmania after his wedding last month, was the only notable absentee while Daniel Rioli limped around the boundary line after surgery on a broken foot.

“If you look at all the outcomes rather than the things you can control, obviously there’s pressure and the outside will want us to crumble under that pressure,” Cotchin said.

“Our mentality would be we’re going out there to hunt, as we did throughout 2017.”

The Richmond captain said he was not studying the Bulldogs to learn from their mistakes. After breaking a 62-year flag drought in 2016, the Dogs won four fewer home-andaway games to become the first premier since 2008 to miss the finals the next year.

“Everyone is different. Our group is unique and we’ll find our own way forward,” he said.

“Without being inside the four walls you don’t know how they approached it. For us it’s just about controlling what we know works for us, but also where we think the improvement lies. We’ve got a lot of young talent, we brought new talent in and our older guys, while they’re older, there is still a lot of youth there as well.

“I think the foundations that we created last year, if we continue to build on those and repeat the same sort of effort and intensity, it will hold us in really good stead.”

He said the Tigers’ depth was a reason for added confidence next season.

“There was probably five, six, seven guys who could have put their hand up and played in the senior team [on Grand Final day] given their success of the VFL team last year,” Cotchin said.

“I think the hunger that our group has shown, whether that be in game of off field in the off-season, speaks for itself.”