The Tigers reached their second successive finals series for the first time since the mid-70s, but were humbled by Port Adelaide in the elimination final.
“That will live with us over summer and, hopefully, now we have been in the position twice, the boys are now really starting to understand that opportunities don't come around a lot,” he said.
“We had to work really hard to get that opportunity this year but we need to make sure that that has that little bit of burning desire sitting in your gut throughout the pre-season, going into next season.”
The Tigers’ disappointing performance against the Power ended a run of nine-straight victories, which saw the team storm into the top eight after a slow start to the campaign.
Cotchin believes the lessons learnt throughout the Club’s roller-coaster season will be an important benefit leading into the 2015 season.
“We certainly had a really positive back end of the year. We didn’t start the season as exactly how we wanted to,” he said.
“We showed a lot of resolve to get back up and going, win some games and take some confidence going into finals.
“We obviously didn’t perform yesterday, but there’s a lot of lessons we’ve learnt throughout this year that I think will hold us in good stead going forward.
“A number of our players have shown really good signs of their growth and development as players from an individual point of view, but also buying into our team philosophies.
“Hopefully we can continue to grow and improve over the pre-season and take some real confidence into Round 1 next year.”
