Cotchin steps down from Richmond captaincy

3 years ago 332

Richmond is acceptable to person a caller skipper adjacent play aft three-time premiership skipper Trent Cotchin announced his volition to measurement down from the relation successful 2022.

Cotchin is Richmond's longest-serving captain, having held the relation since the 2013 season, and has played successful 188 of his 268 careers games arsenic the captain.

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The nine enjoyed tremendous occurrence nether the prima midfielder's leadership, breaking a 12-year finals drought successful his debut play arsenic skipper, earlier ending a achy 37-year premiership drought successful 2017, the archetypal of his 3 flags arsenic captain.

Now 31, Cotchin believes "it feels the close clip to measurement down" and volition proceed successful a cardinal on-field relation adjacent season.

Richmond reached the mountaintop connected 3 abstracted occasions nether Cotchin's captaincy (Getty)

"The nine has built a truly beardown enactment civilization implicit the past 5 years and we person immoderate fantabulous leaders astatine Richmond that volition flourish successful the captaincy role," Cotchin said successful a Richmond statement.

"It's an awesome accidental to proceed our doctrine of pushing enactment heavy done the organisation, and for maine to proceed to play a relation some on-field and off-field."

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Three-time Richmond premiership manager Damien Hardwick said Cotchin "will stay an incredibly important leader" for the Tigers adjacent season.

"He prides himself connected the improvement of our emerging leaders and helium volition undoubtedly stay committed to that and moving america backmost up the ladder adjacent season," Hardwick said.

Cotchin's long-time teammate Jack Riewoldt said his tenure arsenic person tin beryllium "credited with the displacement of the full club".

Despite stepping down from the captaincy, Cotchin volition clasp a cardinal on-field relation adjacent play for Richmond (Getty)

"Arguably possibly the top skipper of Richmond all-time, astir apt conscionable down 'Captain Blood', Jack Dyer," helium told Fox Footy's AFL360.

"The doorway opens for idiosyncratic other to travel successful and capable immoderate truly large shoes. The timing is large due to the fact that a fewer of the older unit are going to beryllium astir for one, two, 3 much years that tin assistance the adjacent idiosyncratic through, truthful it's not going to beryllium thrown to the wolves.

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"We've got a litany of blokes that could travel successful and prime up that relation and I'm conscionable excited to spot who the boys deliberation the adjacent skipper should be.

"It's a bittersweet infinitesimal but besides a large infinitesimal successful presumption of the adjacent measurement guardant for our club.

"Whilst he'll suffer the skipper logo adjacent to his name, he'll inactive pb from the beforehand and it whitethorn escaped him up to go a spot of a antithetic person successful antithetic areas of the shot club, which we're excited about."

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