Trent Cotchin opens up about hub life challenges, new businesses and his mate Dusty

Richmond was a laughing stock and Trent Cotchin was the punchline. The Tigers skipper opens up on the dark times and what they mean to him now.

The full-throated scream that carried across Richmond’s MCG change rooms after the 2015 elimination finals loss will stay with those that heard it forever.

Damien Hardwick’s Tigers had been brutalised by North Melbourne and the media were about to come for his captain.

Trent Cotchin’s disastrous nine-possession game against tagger Ben Jacobs would lead to calls that summer for Richmond’s much-maligned captain to be replaced.

In the bowels of the MCG Hardwick finally summoned a shell-shocked team into the locker room for a spray that was simple and savage.

“NEVER, NEVER, NEVER AGAIN,” he bellowed at the top of his voice after Richmond’s third consecutive finals loss.

Richmond was an AFL laughing stock, and the 2016 season that took them to rock bottom hadn’t even started yet.

Five years and six months later, Trent Cotchin sits with his back to the wall in the foyer of his new ONE TWO boxing gym in Ascot Vale and surveys his kingdom.

He is truly the Tiger King, widely acknowledged as footy’s best leader, a triple premiership captain, Brownlow Medallist and three-time Jack Dyer Medallist.

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Trent Cotchin is gang tackled by Ben Jacobs and Andrew Swallow in the 2015 elimination final. Picture: Michael Klein

The portfolio of businesses that include socks brand Posisocks will soon expand into a series of talks under the “Imperfect Enough” banner, with Cotchin already planning for life after football.

Yet for 30-year-old Cotchin, everything he has built dates back to those lessons of 2015 and 2016.

He will never forget how they changed his outlook on life and transformed him into the open and authentic person he has become.

“What is it, six years ago? 2015. I suppose relative to that we have a six-year-old (Harper) at home and I think about how quick that’s gone. Footy is the same.

“I didn’t touch it that day. Yeah, it was shit … It was shit. But like life and business, with those moments we might not have bounced back in ’16 like we would have liked to, but I have no doubt it has impacted the way we learnt, grown and come back again in 2017 and then ’19 and ’20 in pretty good fashion.

“Without those lessons I don’t know if we sit here with what the results have been in the last few years.

“I remember having a conversation with Jack (Riewoldt) in ’16 and we had a coffee and we said, ‘The reality is it probably won‘t happen for us in our lifetime, but what can we do that will help give Daniel Rioli in his first year the opportunity to do what maybe we will never get to do?’.

“That’s been our whole group’s attitude and it‘s amazing what happens when it’s not about me, it’s about we.”

Trent Cotchin at his new ONE TWO gym. Picture: Alex Coppel

COTCHIN THE BUSINESSMAN

Cotchin has lived through an era when ex-footballers spied opportunities in construction management or pubs as the kind of cash cows that might set them up post-career.

The joy for him is transitioning into a footy afterlife using exactly the kind of skills that saw him show his true face to his teammates in 2017 and pledge to become a more open, authentic leader.

“I would like to think I have still got a couple of good years left in me. But what life looks like beyond footy is still really important to me and it lights me up, and it’s always around helping people get the best out of themselves,” he says.

“Whether it’s ONE TWO or Posisocks, it’s about the wellness of people and creating a community that welcomes anyone and everyone.

“It’s about working out what you want to spend your time doing. I have been incredibly fortunate to be at Richmond for a long period of time and every day you learn. Business is no different. You don’t clock it. Often from your most challenging times come your greatest lessons and we have already had that with setting up this studio. I am really excited about what it brings. I am also pretty shit-scared.”

Trent Cotchin is thinking about life after footy. Picture: Alex Coppel

The boxing gym combines Brooke Cotchin’s love of boxing for exercise with the expertise of professional boxer Josh Nesbitt, introduced to Trent Cotchin by Dustin Martin.

Cotchin’s aim is to create a safe space and more casual vibe not often apparent in the more blokey, intimidating boxing world in 45-minute fitness classes where patrons can get a sweat and also gain some empowerment from boxing.

It was established through a punishing COVID period full of setbacks and lockdowns as Cotchin also endured one of the rockiest periods of his professional career.

HUB LIFE

On October 24 last year Cotchin held aloft the premiership cup on the Gabba, having established a dynasty for a club in four short seasons.

But months of COVID drama was only a small element of a premiership Damien Hardwick dubbed the hardest flag ever won.

Brooke Cotchin’s AFL protocol breach for attending a Gold Coast spa set off a chain of events that might well have brought down weaker clubs.

At one stage the Cotchins threatened to leave the Gold Coast hub, eventually volunteering to pay the $25,000 COVID fine after Brooke was publicly identified when others involved in breaches from Carlton and Hawthorn were not.

Cotchin says it was the toughest time of his football career.

“Yeah, it was. Anything that impacts my family personally for me is bloody hard and to see the way that it impacted her, she was first to put her hand up and say it once she understood it was outside of what was allowed, but I think it’s being unaware of social media trolls and so forth and the way that it impacts people’s lives.

“At the end of the day she is only up there to ensure I could perform my role in playing footy and keeping the game going.

“As much as it was very different back here, it was a big sacrifice for her to make and something I will be forever grateful for.

“And I think people forget sometimes we are all human and it might be just a shit comment they make on social media but the impact it has on people, particularly people who aren’t paid to be out there in the limelight, is relatively unfair and people should be more aware of that.”

Trent Cotchin shares the 2020 premiership cup with wife Brooke.

Brooke has said of those trolls that they put her “in a bad place for a little while” and “broke her heart” with their content.

As the controversy simmered Brooke’s dad, former Footscray player Rick Kennedy, complained in a radio interview about her being “muzzled”.

It was the perfect clickbait headline to spark the furore again.

Yet Kennedy’s actual message was that Brooke was keen to publicly own her mistake at one stage and had been prevented from getting that message across by higher powers.

“Yeah, absolutely,” says Cotchin of her willingness to own the mistake.

Trent and Brooke Cotchin and their three children Harper, Mackenzie and Parker 10 launch their business Posisocks. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“I think everyone is just trying to protect, whether it was the AFL protecting them being up there. There were other (COVID) breaches but no one was named, so it was a whole host of different things that made it challenging. I think what you learn there is who truly cares about you and your family. From your darkest times come your greatest lessons and we learnt a lot about each other during that time.”

What did he learn about the strength of his wife and mother to daughters Harper, Mackenzie and son Parker?

“I already had the ultimate respect for Brooke. I think women are incredible beings,” he says. “Particularly when they go through childbirth, and effectively they sacrifice a big part of their life to bring up a family. To see one of the people you love most was challenging but she was the one who picked up the phone and had conversations with people that even I would be nervous or anxious about having conversations with, and I take my hat off to her. And to the people who continue to show her support.”

Brendon Gale’s wife Jane then publicly supported her own husband and revealed the Cotchins had threatened to leave the hub in a spat that jarred with the idea of Richmond’s tight-knit aura.

Trent Cotchin arrives for a COVID test during the challenging 2020 season.

So why did Cotchin consider leaving, when there was so much at stake from a football perspective?

“I suppose in a selfish sort of way, where it had got to was Brooke not being in a very good place and for me nothing will ever stand in the way of my family’s health and wellbeing, and I will do anything to protect that.

“(Brendon and I) addressed (the spat) pretty quickly. I know there was some commentary around that about pulling clubs apart but I think something that we love to do at the footy club is address anything that is not an issue. But other people might try to sweep it (under the carpet) or try to ignore it or push it aside and try to move forward, but that’s typically when things bobble up and bite you on the bum at a later date.”

A CLUB UNDER SIEGE

As the 2020 finals approached the Tigers were the AFL’s Public Enemy No.1 after a series of COVID breaches and Tom Lynch’s MRO transgressions, with the cracks seemingly starting to appear.

History will show the Tigers peeled off their last six home-and-away games, then three straight finals victories after dropping the qualifying final to Brisbane.

“It’s nice being the underdog,” Cotchin smiles of that backs-to-the-wall quality.

“Dimma’s reference to Tommy Hafey is what we effectively love to be hated. For the right reasons, not the wrong reasons.

“We have got an amazing group and we are very tight within our organisation.

“It’s funny, after the loss to Brisbane we were like, ‘It could be a blessing in disguise’. In hub life, you keep playing and that can be a good thing rather than (having a week off) and being distracted.

Trent Cotchin tangles with Cam Rayner in the 2020 qualifying final.

“I remember having the conversation with Dimma and Dusty (Martin) when we got straight back to the hub straight after the loss and I said, ‘I think it’s going to be a good thing for us. Get back to Metricon next week and hopefully get the Saints job done and what better than to go over against all odds, against the team of the year in Port’.

“It was an epic game, it was pretty crazy and low scoring and I am not sure most people would have coped in the last few minutes.

“We were outplayed in the first half (of the Grand Final) and there was probably a halftime where I thought, ‘Our backs are against the wall. If they manage to steal the momentum early in this second half, it‘s going to make it really tough’. But then again to no surprises the guys just found a way.”

MY MATE DUSTY

Dustin Martin is a lifelong mate who Cotchin is happy to have babysit his kids on the couch at home.

He is also the international rock star who bobbed up in the Maldives DJing with Serena Williams and her husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

How did an AFL footballer find himself in that kind of company?

“I don’t even know. He doesn’t even like talking about it,” says Cotchin of the triple Norm Smith Medallist.

“I think it was through a mutual friend, who he had met in LA, who happened to know Serena very well. He was gallivanting around the world somewhere and had touched base with his friend who was with them and was headed there and that’s how he ended up with Serena and with her husband, who is the founder of Reddit.”

Martin might end up the greatest player of all time, and Cotchin says his ability to perform in the white-hot spotlight will colour his view of his friend’s deeds when he is compared to the likes of Wayne Carey and Leigh Matthews.

Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin share a laugh at training.

“I love Dusty’s journey not just as a football player but also as a person. I am so grateful to have played so many games of footy but also share a special friendship. I don’t know if maybe the time or the era he is playing as well, I know Buddy is still playing, but I think the expectations are higher than they have ever been so that’s an added challenge as well. It’s hard to say, they are all freaks.”

BACKING SYDNEY STACK

Cotchin says Sydney Stack has been given the firm message he is running out of chances to transform his life and football career as he prepares to return to Punt Rd.

Richmond is thrilled that Stack will on Sunday fly into Melbourne to prepare for his return to football after being fined $6000 for a Perth COVID breach.

The club will give him all the welfare and counselling support it can after a harrowing three-week period in jail and the loss of close family members last year.

But the Tigers are also prepared to dole out some tough love, having told Stack he must respond with the kind of professionalism that has come in fits and starts in his time at Richmond.

Cotchin has spoken with Stack about his return to the club as he prepares to move in with a host family and improve a fitness base he said was only at 25 per cent of AFL level.

He said Richmond had pledged to stand by Stack and would fulfil that promise.

“That’s been our goal and focus since everything eventuated,” he told the Herald Sun.

“We know Stacky through his journey of living and getting to an AFL club has made some mistakes along the way but our goal for anyone who walks into our footy club is to walk out of the footy club a better person.

“We want to continue to give himself that opportunity to grow and find out about who the real Sydney Stack is and hopefully this last little challenge for him, which has been pretty significant, it’s not a wake-up call but it’s a reminder football can come and go pretty quickly and it’s not just you it’s impacting, it’s impacting a lot of people.

“But we are also willing to help him, and hopefully give him the best opportunity to be the absolute best version of himself.”

Asked if Stack was aware he had to show the professionalism to repay Richmond’s faith, Cotchin said: “Absolutely, and I think he’s got that message very loud and clear.”

Originally published as Trent Cotchin opens up about hub life challenges, new businesses and his mate Dusty