Tiger bigs could get Pickett off the hook
Richmond captain Trent Cotchin believes the Tigers can play two genuine ruckman this season and may need to against Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy tomorrow night.
Richmond assistant coach Justin Leppitsch revealed last week that 184cm-tall, 2019 grand final hero Marlion Pickett was being considered to play a fill-in ruck role this year like Shaun Grigg did in 2017.
Grundy, however, is not only the reigning All-Australian ruckman, but at 203cm has 19cm on Pickett.
Cotchin said he believed last year’s premiership ruck combination of Ivan Soldo and Toby Nankervis could remain successful despite shorter quarters leaving many sides likely to play only one ruckman.
“Both (Soldo and Nankervis) have been in really good nick throughout our little midseason phase leading into the restart and both have amazing attributes,” Cotchin said.
“So I think it will just come down to how we match up.
“The thing we encourage about our ruckmen is the follow-up after the hitout, and I think if they can impact the game on the ground then they clearly bring a lot of value.”
Hamstring issues restricted Cotchin to just 14 of a possible 25 matches last season, but the 30-year-old said he was in good shape ahead of the season restart.
“We put a lot of trust and faith in our conditioning staff and our medicos and they’ve been amazing with the support through the off-season,” he said. “I’m really confident in the body and that we’ve prepared ourselves really well.” Chris Cavanagh