The Score: Is Trent Cotchin AFL’s best bloke? Isaac Smith’s awkward press conference
Richmond captain Trent Cotchin has a reputation as one of the game’s good guys and, as Daisy Pearce — and a lucky Richmond member found out — the title is well-earned.
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It’s universally agreed that Trent Cotchin is one of the nice guys of football.
There is ample evidence of this but AFLW star and commentator Daisy Pearce found out on Sunday exactly how nice the Richmond skipper was.
She went to Punt Rd before the Richmond-West Coast game for a scheduled interview with Tigers president Peggy O'Neal for her SEN show ‘This Is Grit’.
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When she arrived the offices were shut and Pearce was wondering how she'd get inside when she noticed Cotchin through a small window.
“He gave me a wave and came and opened the door. That was nice enough in itself but it wasn’t the act of kindness,” Pearce told SEN Breakfast.
“I’m standing in there chatting to Trent, he gives Peggy a ring for me to see where she’s at. So I’ve got the skipper chasing up the president for little old me just trying to do an interview.
“As I’m standing there with Trent, another person appears looking through awkwardly and it’s a Richmond member. Trent opens the door for him and says, ‘G’day mate, what are you after?’.
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“He says, ‘Oh, don’t worry, there’s nobody on reception, I’ve forgotten my membership ticket, I can’t get in’.
“So then the skipper of the Richmond Footy Club, injured at the time and had been in doing a rehab session before heading over to the game, says, ‘I’ll be back in three minutes’.
“He goes and logs into the computer, prints him off a couple of tickets and gets him into the ground.”
As you could imagine the Tigers member was gobsmacked by this service and even when he pointed out he only needed one ticket, Cotchin said: “Make someone else’s day”.
SMITH CAN’T RAIN ON LEWIS’ PARADE
Timing is everything in football. Just ask Isaac Smith.
The three-time Hawthorn premiership wingman celebrates his 200th game this weekend and as with such a milestones a press conference was arranged.
It made perfect sense on Monday when the Hawks sent out a media reminder saying Smith would be available at Waverley Park at 1pm the following day.
But come Tuesday morning things started to unravel.
Melbourne sent out a media alert saying Jordan Lewis was having his retirement press conference at the MCG at … wait for it … 1pm.
The kicker to this was Hawthorn coach Alistair Clarkson would be in attendance at Lewis’ media event given his love for the four-time Hawthorn premiership hero.
Then throw in the fact Fremantle had just sacked its coach and CEO, and the media world was in a spin.
So when Smith strode out to the interview room at Waverley at 1pm there was a grand total of one camera crew in attendance and not another journo in sight.
“I think we worked out who was more important to the competition,” Smith told RSN 927. “Clarko was at Jordan’s, the media was at Jordan’s … I know where I would have been.”
Smith admitted he wouldn’t have given much even if anyone had turned up, given he described Saturday night’s clash with West Coast as “just another game”.
“We’ll see how we go but I was playing country footy at 21 so to get 200 by 30 is a pretty good effort,” Smith said.
“I’ve been lucky that I haven't missed too many games, I’ve probably only missed 10 or 15 games over nine years of football.”
REINVENTING OF THE FACTS?
It’s been one of the longest running cold wars in the media.
AFL 360 host and SEN commentator Gerard Whateley and Ross Lyon haven't been on speaking terms for eight years.
Whateley was highly critical of the way Lyon exited St Kilda back in 2011 and was quizzed on his radio program yesterday about their relationship in the wake of Lyon’s sacking at Frementle.
“We understand our positions, we’ve had eight years’ worth of it and we don't speak,” Whateley said.
“I respect his position on his reaction to what I said. I don't have any issue with it.
Asked if he'd gone too hard after the St Kilda departure, Whateley said: “No (but) I think there’s been a reinventing of the facts that happened eight years ago to come to a different set of circumstances to what really happened.”
THE WHISPER
A lesson for under siege coaches in the future, if your media manager takes an unexpected day off then fear the worse. We hear Freo’s PR man was off the grid all day on Monday before Tuesday’s blood letting.
Originally published as The Score: Is Trent Cotchin AFL’s best bloke? Isaac Smith’s awkward press conference
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