Richmond captain Trent Cotchin insists the Tigers won’t reflect on their upset exit at this stage last year as they prepare for Friday’s AFL preliminary final against Geelong.
Richmond’s premiership defence was brought to a screeching halt in 2018 with a 39-point loss to Collingwood but Cotchin said that wasn’t “relevant” this week, instead emphasising focus on “little moments” within Friday’s game.
“You have to be at your best for the majority of the game to give yourself an opportunity but you need to focus on the little moments,” Cotchin told reporters on Sunday.
“They’re the ones that you want to control going into a clash against a great team.”
Cotchin said he couldn’t remember his initial reaction to last year’s loss.
“There’s obviously a little bit of disappointment and frustration,” Cotchin said.
“But the reality is I think as a football club and team, we’ve just celebrated the journey for a long period of time now.
“And that’s what we get our enjoyment from – all the little moments, the nuances that make football and being part of a special organisation is what we love about it.
“We won’t be dictated to by a result or an outcome, we just want to make sure we give our best in each moment.”
Last year, the Tigers enjoyed a dominant home and away season and easily accounted for Hawthorn in their qualifying final before they were knocked out by Collingwood.
This year, Richmond enters the preliminary final on a 10-game winning streak but Cotchin didn’t think his side was any better or worse placed than in 2018.
“We’re in exactly the same place,” Cotchin said.
“We have an opportunity to play in a prelim final against a quality opposition, much the same as last year and what I can say is that we’re really confident about what we can bring to games of footy.”
Heavily criticised after their qualifying final loss against Collingwood, Geelong responded with an impressive victory over West Coast on Friday night and Cotchin said he expected a difficult test on Friday night.
“They were obviously challenged from the external last week, responded really well, started the game strongly and they’ve got amazing talent with the number of guys that are in their first and second seasons that are really contributing,” Cotchin said.
“I don’t think you get to a prelim final without having a pretty sound system and process.”