Trent Cotchin on the pressure of the Richmond captaincy and learning to enjoy the good times
A TORRID 2016 season left Richmond captain TRENT COTCHIN questioning his position at the club. The love of his coach helped him turn things around.
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IT was the moment I knew I had to get some help.
Throughout the first four years as captain of Richmond, I’d always tried to work my backside off. Tried to be positive and supportive. As my dad always used to say: “Try to make every post a winner.”
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But it was at the funeral of one of the most important people in Richmond’s history, Neville Crowe, in September last year that things really hit me.
Based on our performances and the pressure I was putting on myself, it was the worst season of my career and the most challenging year of my life.
As a team, I never thought we were far off, but the scoreboard suggested otherwise in our heavy late-season losses against Sydney and Greater Western Sydney.
At the end of the season, I was having a significant period of reflection about the team, myself and my position as a leader.
Was I the right fit for the club? I felt as unclear and as uncertain as I had ever been in footy.
I just wanted to the team to succeed and if that was under a new captain this year, I was fine with that.
I was totally comfortable with being able to lead this season without that title.
And I think the emotion of Neville’s funeral, combined with the emotion surrounding what he did to save the club in the 1990s, plus the difficulty of the season and all the cloudiness about who I was and who I wanted to be, it all just got to me.
At that point, I realised that I needed to seek out what my values were.
Our coach Damien Hardwick was there, too, and in a moment I’ll never forget, he threw his arms around me, told me he loved me and would support me.
We both wanted to help turn the team’s form around after last season and he said to me, “We are on this journey together”.
To have someone there like that say they love you and that they are there for you, it was a pretty powerful moment for me.
And most importantly, I sought out the help I needed and “Dimma” backed me in.
No one can do anything on their own. Through Dimma I sought out a mentor, “Crowey”, who helped me work through things and helped create an environment for me to do my own thinking and find myself.
And the greatest lesson that I’ve learned is that we are all imperfect, and that’s OK. We don’t all have the answers all the time.
Throughout my career, I’ve probably always had a kind of shield up, or had some armour on.
It’s a protective mechanism, I guess. You always want to be strong and stable for your teammates and your family, and throughout my adult life on and off the field I’ve tried to be this perfect person.
But at the end of last season everything was building up and it became a really heavy burden, and was taking a huge toll on me.
I needed to let go and show people that I was having the same challenges as everyone.
The same ups and downs that we all go through.
So I dropped that shield and threw away the armour, which, to be honest, was probably not allowing me to have the kind of closeness with my teammates that I do now.
What I have learned is that the more we can share with those around you and those who you go into battle with on the weekend and through the pre-season, the better our relationships with teammates and bonds can be.
It’s a connection thing and it’s our imperfections that connect us most. And it’s amazing the impact these changes and learnings have had on us as a group and my relationships with a lot of the guys.
Earlier in my career, my relationships with teammates was not something I probably valued as much as I should have, but I have learned from that.
Whether it’s the most senior guys or the youngest players on the list, I think you can connect on a much greater and deeper level when you show you are human.
When you open yourself up to one another and realise you are all going through the same struggles. It strengthens the ties off the field and in the change room and I’m certain it has really helped our on-field synergy this season.
A lot of people have remarked how Richmond looks to playing with more instinct and freedom. It’s right, we are. But I think it comes back to connection as well.
We have all got this fence line, or parameter around how we want to play, but within those parameters it feels like there is a greater understanding, synergy and team ethic about the way we are playing at the moment.
It’s nice to be 5-0. We have a lot of work to do yet, and can improve a lot too, but you’ve got to enjoy the good times, and the wins.
As part of my leadership, I did need to embrace the fact that guys want to celebrate when we are doing well, rather than harp on the fact that we “can’t get ahead of ourselves”.
You don’t want to ride the weekly roller coaster because the football environment can become so challenging when you lose.
But I’ve realised it’s OK to be happy about winning, and not to try and frown about it unnecessarily. It’s a game after all.
We should enjoy it, we should have fun with our mates.
It felt like things began to click into place for us on my first day back in pre-season.
The young guys had already returned and were showing lots of vigour and energy and enthusiasm on the track and around the club and that’s something I’ve always thrived on at Punt Rd.
It almost gave me even more confidence just to be myself. There was a moment when I got up and spoke in front of the group about the different way I wanted to go about things and the response was almost instant.
I was having coffee with some of the younger guys early in the pre-season and maybe in the past, players don’t want to reveal their vulnerabilities to the captain of the footy club.
Maybe you would worry if it would affect whether you are going to get another contract or something if you reveal your worries or weaknesses.
But I made a big effort to open up more and straight away you feel like you can connect more strongly with the guys.
You then have the ability to really understand what they need or how you can actually help them. I think that has been powerful for me and for us.
I also got up there and talked about how I needed love and support, too.
I spoke about how I felt I was worthy of being captain of this great club and that I was really excited about the journey we were on.
Our values at the club have been strong and have been built over a long period of time, but when you start to lose, you might let little things slips, that typically you should value more, it was just about re-honing them.
As I said, no one expects us to be perfect, and I’m certainly not. But this little change has helped us take little steps towards achieving what we want on and off the field this season.
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