Clean Cotchin sets example for Tigers
TIGERS boss Brendon Gale says this is Trent Cotchin’s team.
Renowned hard man Neil Balme admits he “had a tear in the eye” when the skipper snapped his miracle last-term goal.
But the measure of the man occurred when he would have presumed the cameras were off late on Friday night.
Cotchin was captured cleaning the Richmond change rooms of rubbish and Gatorade bottles as the last man out of the rooms.
He joked yesterday he was just picking up where “clean freak” Ivan Maric left off.
But Richmond footy boss Balme confirmed Cotchin was adopting a mantra taken up by the all-powerful All Blacks.
They call it “sweeping the sheds”, star players cleaning up post-match in a message you are not being too big to do the small things that need to be done.
It is a leadership principle that has echoed across the sporting world given their remarkable success.
“Yeah, he would have read about that legacy,’’ Balme said.
“We have talked about it, not last week but 12 months ago we went through it and he is just a very thoughtful kid.
“The All Blacks don’t own that message but they get good results and some of it has to be the way they behave. “He is a good boy and I had a tear in my eye when he kicked that goal.”
Former ruckman and club chief Gale has seen Cotchin’s highs and lows, including two sorry finals he admits he pondered during the week off.
He was mighty against Geelong, physically battering Patrick Dangerfield as the Tigers forced the Cats star into four turnovers in the first two minutes of the last term.
“I was so proud of him and happy for him,” Gale said.
“This is his team. He has taken his leadership to another level and imposed his standards and expectations on this team. It’s about connection and unity and brotherhood and care. I think that (footage of him cleaning up) was the exemplification of that.”
Cotchin admits he loves his best mate Dustin Martin, as the duo went to work dominating Geelong until they broke.
“Like any of your best mates, you’d die for them. That’s where Dusty and I my relationship is,’’ he said.
Martin has taken his famous fend off to a new level this year, with an amazing 74 broken tackles from the much-vaunted ‘don’t argue’.