Off-season moves: Trent Cotchin has stepped down as Richmond captain
Much-loved Tiger Tony Jewell believes the time was right for Trent Cotchin to step down, but he has cautioned Richmond on its next captain.
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Richmond premiership coach Tony Jewell has urged the Tigers to blood a young replacement for outgoing captain Trent Cotchin, nominating midfielder Jack Graham as the perfect fit.
Jewell, who coached the Tigers to the 1980 premiership, said it was the right time for Cotchin to hand over the baton after nine years and three premierships as the team’s leader.
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But he cautioned the club against anointing a senior player as the Tigers look to rebound from a disappointing 2021 season.
“I wouldn’t go with any of the old guard at all,” Jewell said.
“If they are going to win another one, they are going to need to get a lot of the young blokes to stand up and to carry them (forward).
“So, I would be going with someone outside (the older group) … maybe Graham, he’s been around for a while but he’s not the old guard.
“I like Graham. He would be closer to all those young blokes. They have got a terrific group of young blokes coming on but they are the ones that are going to win another premiership for them, not that old guard.
“That’s a good age (23), I reckon, and he would have the respect of those older blokes.”
Cotchin, now 31, stepped into the captaincy role at 23 in 2013 and led the Tigers to their first finals series in 12 years.
He went on to become Richmond’s most successful and longest-serving skipper.
Superstar Dustin Martin, Graham, Nick Vlastuin, Dylan Grimes and Toby Nankervis all loom as potential replacements.
Jewell said the Tigers needed a younger leader than 30-year-old fan favourite and Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin.
“He (Martin) is one of the old guard. I’m not even sure how good a leader (he would be),” Jewell said.
“He has been there a long time. It might rejuvenate him but I would be looking for someone among the younger blokes or middle ground.
“If they are going to win another premiership it is going to be the young blokes, not the old guard that wins it.
Jewell felt Cotchin could benefit from walking away from the captaincy.
“It will take the pressure off him and he might be a better player because of it, too, instead of having that burden to carry around. He has been a brilliant leader,” he said.
Former Richmond coach and captain Francis Bourke said Martin was by far the Tigers best player but that didn’t necessarily mean he would be the best choice as captain.
“He is far and away our best player, gifted-wise, natural (talent) wise, but that doesn’t automatically mean that he should be captain,” Bourke said.
“Certainly, what sets you apart with players of his ilk — and I am talking about the top five per cent of players in the competition over a generation — is he is such an unselfish player himself.
“Sure, he would have to be considered but I am happy to leave that to the wise heads that prevail at Tigerland.”
Neil Balme believes the media-shy Martin would be up for the role.
“I don’t think he would be opposed to it but it is interesting,” Balme told SEN.
“In the good old days you sort of thought the best player has to be the captain but that is not necessarily what we do nowadays.
“The best captain is the captain and we will look at that, there is no doubt that Dusty is going to play a big part in whatever happens over the next few years here.”
Dustin time? Martin in mix to replace Cotchin
Richmond’s veteran leadership group will not allow the club’s new captain to be thrown to the wolves, according to champion forward Jack Riewoldt.
The Tigers will begin the search for its next skipper from Wednesday after triple premiership hero Trent Cotchin announced he was relinquishing the role.
Cotchin, 31, told his Tiger teammates on Tuesday he would play on next year but felt it was the “right time to step down” after a club record 188 matches as their leader.
Riewoldt said the decision meant the “door opens for someone else to come in and fill his very big shoes”.
“The timing I think is great for the fact that there are a few of the older crew who are going to be around for the next one, two or maybe three years who can help the next person through,” Riewoldt told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“So he’s not going to be thrown to the wolves.
“We’ve got a litany of blokes who could come in and pick up that role and I’m excited to see who the next captain is going to be.”
Jack Graham, Nick Vlastuin and Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin will be among the leading candidates.
Cotchin is the only triple premiership captain in Richmond’s history and has led the club into the equal most finals campaigns – seven.
He considered stepping down during a disastrous 2016 season for the Tigers when he came under fierce criticism for his leadership style.
But the following year Cotchin and coach Damien Hardwick led a cultural shift that revolved around players opening up on their emotions embracing their vulnerability.
The Tigers won a historic premiership in 2017 and three flags within four years.
“He’s arguably the greatest captain of Richmond of all time — probably just behind Captain Blood Jack Dyer,” Riewoldt said.
“He just did everything right. But we don’t lose him as a player, he is going to play on next year, obviously, which is super exciting.”
While he made the announcement official on Tuesday, Cotchin had told some senior players of his decision a week ago.
It follows two tough years leading his team through the Covid-19 crisis.
In 2020 he agreed to personally pay a $25,000 fine handed to the Tigers after his wife, Brooke, posted a photo on social media of her visiting a Gold Coast day spa in breach of the AFL’s strict biosecurity protocols.
The Cotchins considered leaving the club’s Gold Coast hub at the time and coming home.
This year, Cotchin was caught interstate with the Tigers while their daughter Mackenzie was taken to hospital with an illness.
“Knowing Trent as well as I do, he’d be hurting inside — there’s no doubt,” Hardwick said at the time.
“No one likes to have a sick child, especially when you feel so far away from home,” Cotchin Cotchin said in a club statement on Tuesday he would continue to play a role on-field and off-field.
“It has been an incredible privilege to captain this club but it feels the right time to step down from that role,” Cotchin said.
The 2012 Brownlow medallist took over the position in 2013 when he was 23 led Richmond to its first finals appearance in 12 years.
Richmond CEO Brendon Gale said the club would make a decision on its new leader “when the time comes”.
“He is such a selfless leader and this decision underlines that – he has always done what he thinks is best for the team,” Gale said.
“He will still be an enormously important part of our team moving forward and I know how driven he is to see this club bounce back in 2022.
“Succession planning has been a key element of our football leadership program and the club will be well placed to make a decision on the next captain when that time comes.”
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said Cotchin would remain an important leader next year “regardless of his title”.
“He prides himself on the development of our emerging leaders and he will undoubtedly remain committed to that and moving us back up the ladder next season,” Hardwick said.
Leppitsch relishing being part of McRae’s Pies revolution
Incoming Collingwood head of strategy Justin Leppitsch has revealed his strong relationship with Craig McRae and tailored role were what lured him back to the AFL.
Leppitsch and Brendon Bolton, both former senior coaches, will be key lieutenants for McRae in his first stint in charge as Nathan Buckley’s successor at the Magpies.
Speaking for the first time at length about his new position, Leppitsch said it would be an overarching role that combined strategy, team defence and the backline.
One of his early priorities is ensuring Darcy Moore remains in defence rather than up forward.
“I’m so looking forward to it – I really am,” Leppitsch told SEN radio.
“I loved every moment of the media this year. In fact, a lot of people in club land told me I’m the smartest man alive, given the fact they were non-stop flying from one place to the next and not knowing where to go.
“I really felt for our coaches and players this year, with all the things they had to go through to keep the season alive.
“In a lot of ways, I’ve missed a lot of the bad part of this season, which I’m somewhat thankful for, but I’m just so rapt to get back into it (with) a new group, and a really motivated group as well, that wants to improve.”
He stepped down as an assistant coach at Richmond last year, after spending eight of the previous 11 seasons there, including for the Tigers’ three flags.
Leppitsch was the senior coach at Brisbane in between, from 2014-16, before returning to Richmond for the 2017 season.
McRae and Leppitsch lived together for three months after the Lions (then known as the Bears) recruited the former in the 1993 pre-season draft.
They both played in Brisbane’s flag three-peat and remain close friends.
“The role itself is a matter of me playing to my strengths. No one would know me any better than Craig McRae, so he’s created a role that suits me,” Leppitsch said.
“To be perfectly honest, I’ve had a few conversations over the years and the role was heading towards something like this. Give it whatever title you like; it was a little bit of the big picture.
“But in footy nowadays you still have to do the day-to-day grind, so I’ll still be doing the backline, for instance, and helping those players, developing them and making them better men and footballers as well.
“It’s not all just sitting in an office behind a computer, which is what people would perceive, given the title.”
Leppitsch said his position wasn’t “an oracle role” and he would instead be a “mediator” who meshed different ideas from various individuals to fit Collingwood’s needs.
“When you get back to the strategy, you have to be open-minded, because you’re bringing in different thoughts and ideas,” he said.
“We’re going to have current Collingwood ideas and thoughts. They’ll know the players better than me and they’ll know what they will be able to achieve better than me.
“You can’t walk in and say, ‘This is the only way you can play football’. The only certainty in life is things will change, so if you don’t think and live that way, you’re going to be stuck in the past.”
Pies snare assistants as AFL’s Hocking role snubbed
Collingwood has appointed two former senior coaches – Justin Leppitsch and Brendon Bolton — to provide back-up support for Craig McRae as the AFL’s off-season went into overdrive on Monday.
The Magpies announced that McRae’s Brisbane premiership teammate Leppitsch would fill a head of strategy role next year and work as a defensive line coach, while Bolton would become the club’s new director of coaching who would also work with the team’s midfield.
It comes as Hawthorn lured premiership player David Hale back from Fremantle to work with Sam Mitchell as an assistant coach.
In other big moves, ex-AFL umpires boss and one-time Greater Western Sydney football chief Wayne Campbell is headed for the Gold Coast and Essendon’s Josh Mahoney pulled out of the race for the AFL’s vacant football operations position.
West Coast Eagles have joined the off-field merry-go-round, appointing Matthew Knights (Geelong) and Jarrad Schofield (Port Adelaide) as assistant coaches.
While McRae is not a high-profile senior coach the Pies believe their new team has the perfect blend of coaching acumen and development expertise to fast-track the young Collingwood side.
Collingwood football boss Graham Wright said the Magpies young list would prosper from the arrival of the Leppitsch-Bolton dream team.
“We set out to appoint a team of coaches who complemented each other, a group of diverse football thinkers and relationship builders who have also shared in a lot of success that could mould our young squad,” Wright said.
“With the appointments of Justin and Brendon I think we’ve gone a fair way to doing that.
“Approximately half of our list in 2022 will comprise of one-to-three year players. The football education we provide them, therefore, will be important.”
While Bolton was unable to drag the Blues to great heights in his tenure as a senior coach he has been universally hailed as an elite teaching coach.
Bolton worked alongside McRae this year as an assistant coach under Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn this year and was not especially close with Mitchell.
Mahoney, 43, has opted to continue in his role as the Bombers football boss – a job he took at the start of the season.
He was a top contender alongside former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott to fill the role vacated by Steve Hocking.
Mahoney’s decision came as it emerged the AFL had opted to split Hocking’s responsibilities into two positions because of the broadening workload and demands.
Scott has also been linked to the Carlton coaching job.
The Suns are set to unveil Campbell, 48, as a replacement for axed general manager of football Jon Haines.
Port Adelaide senior assistant coach Michael Voss has also been linked to the battling expansion club but indicated on Monday that he was likely to remain at Alberton.
Suns chief executive Mark Evans announced a review into the club’s failing football operations earlier this month but contracted senior coach Stuart Dew is now considered safe.
Campbell, who played 297 games for Richmond, has been running Sydney University’s AFL program.
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