A chapter of Richmond’s premiership dynasty has closed after captain Trent Cotchin made an important call on his future.
Triple premiership-winning skipper Trent Cotchin has announced he is stepping down as Richmond’s captain ahead of next season.
Cotchin will play on in 2022 but the club confirmed on Tuesday night he would be passing the baton to the next leader, who is yet to be appointed.
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The decision ends the reign of Richmond’s longest-serving captain who led his side to premiership glory in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
Cotchin has played 268 games for the Tigers including 188 over eight years as captain.
Appointed to the role as a 23-year-old, Cotchin led Richmond to its first finals series in more than a decade and played an instrumental role in breaking the club’s 37-year premiership drought in 2017.
“It has been an incredible privilege to captain this club but it feels the right time to step down from that role,” Cotchin told Richmond’s club website.
“The club has built a really strong leadership culture over the past five years and we have some excellent leaders at Richmond that will flourish in the captaincy role.
“It’s an awesome opportunity to continue our philosophy of pushing leadership deep through the organisation, and for me to continue to play a role both on-field and off-field.”
Coach Damien Hardwick said Cotchin “will remain an incredibly important leader” for the Tigers next season.
“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.
Veteran teammate Jack Riewoldt said Cotchin can take significant credit for steering the whole club in the right direction.
“It’s a long time as captain and he can be credited with the shift of the whole football club along with the coach Damien Hardwick,” Riewoldt told AFL 360.
“(He is) arguably the greatest captain of Richmond of all time, probably just behind ‘Captain Blood’ Jack Dyer.
“He just did everything right and we don’t lose him as a player, he’s going to play on next year obviously which is super exciting, but when the door opens for someone else to come in and fill really big shoes.
“The timing I think is great for the fact that there’s a few of the older crew who are going to be around for maybe one, two or three more years that can help the next person through so it’s not going to be sort of thrown to the wolves a little bit.
“We’ve got a litany of blokes that could come in and pick up that role and just excited to see who the boys think the next captain is going to be.
“It’s a sad moment but also a big moment in terms of the club’s next step forward.
“Whilst he’ll lose the captain’s logo next to his name, he’ll still lead from the front and it may free him up to become a bit of a different leader in different areas of the football club.”
It’s unclear who Richmond’s next captain will be, with Dustin Martin, Dion Prestia, Jack Graham and Dylan Grimes all potential candidates.
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