Cotchin hopes his luck holds after incident

RICHMOND triple premiership star Trent Cotchin will hope his golden touch in avoiding AFL suspensions continues on Monday, despite his high forearm to Melbourne’s James Harmes.

Cotchin dropped his left forearm into Harmes during a heated scuffle, with that incident one of at least three across the weekend’s practice matches to be assessed by officer Michael Christian.

The MRO will on Monday assess exactly where the forearm landed. A low-impact intentional strike to the neck or head would result in a onegame ban. Cotchin is revered within Richmond as one of the club’s great captains given his bull-at-a-gate style, but he has often played on the edge.

Despite several match-review charges, he has not been suspended since a four-week ban for charging North Melbourne’s Sam Wright in 2010.

Cotchin famously played in the 2017 grand final after being cleared of rough conduct when he concussed Dylan Shiel as he tried to contest the ball early in the preliminary final.

In 2019, Cotchin received only a fine for striking Lachie Neale in the jaw amid an AFL crackdown on punches, then secured another fine for striking St Kilda’s Jack Lonie to the stomach later that season.

He was also handed a reprimand for an early-career strike on St Kilda’s Jarryn Geary, and a fine for a late high spoil on Zac Williams. Last year, he was again fined for kicking Adelaide’s Taylor Walker, with the Crows ex-captain saying he “would have been missing the next month” had he committed the act.

He has also been fined for tripping, umpire contact, wrestling and engaging in a melee across his highly decorated 287-game Brownlow Medalwinning career. Teammate Dion Prestia’s round 1 depends on scans on a strained pectoral muscle sustained against Melbourne.

But Marlion Pickett (adductor), Robbie Tarrant (hip) and Jack Graham (turf toe) are a chance to play some minutes in a VFL practice match this weekend. Jack Ross has a fresh medial ligament injury but Josh Gibcus (hamstring) may be the only first-choice player out of the Richmond side after Nathan Broad (hamstring), Tom Lynch (plantar fascia) and Liam Baker (appendix) all made successful returns from injury in the Tigers’ loss to Melbourne at Casey Fields.

In other tribunal cases, Christian will have to decide whether De GoeyChristian will have to decide whether De Goey, who spun Meek as he tackled him, breached his duty of care. GWS ruckman Braydon Preuss, suspended three times last year, was involved in a bizarre tackle attempt on Gold Coast player Tom Berry.