DESPITE being bullied in the opening two rounds, Richmond future leader Trent Cotchin believes the young Tigers have shown that they can mix it with the competition’s elite.

While it was expected flag fancy the Western Bulldogs would win the round-two clash at the MCG on Sunday comfortably, the Tigers were not simply brushed aside, even if the scoreboard suggested they were.

In fact, after the Dogs dominated possession early, majors to Mitch Morton mid-way through the first term put Richmond back in the contest, before a flurry of goals from the Bulldogs immediately after that took the game out of the Tigers’ reach.

In the second term, the Bulldogs again could not entirely dismiss Richmond and only outscored Cotchin and his enthusiastic colleagues by five points.

It was the same story in round one against Carlton when Richmond kicked three unanswered goals late in the first term to keep the contest alive and was only outscored by two points in the second term.

“You can see when we’re good defensively and on our game and we work well on the game plan and the structures that we’ve put in place, you can see we have the ability to kick goals,” Cotchin said.

“So it is just about maintaining that for the whole game.

“I don’t think we are changing [the structure] too much, it is just about being in the right spots and making sure we’re right on to that.”

He said the Tigers also needed to maintain its communication levels for 120 minutes of football.

“Communicating a lot in defence [is particularly important] just to put a lot more pressure on the ball or force them wide or even just to a contest,” he said.

Whether it is fatigue or just immaturity, in both games Richmond has been put to the sword in the second half and Cotchin admitted skill errors were hurting the young group.

“Up until half-time, probably just after half-time we were competitive,” he said.

“It was just disappointing after that and we let ourselves down with some skill errors and fumbling the ball and obviously the Western Bulldogs have capitalised on that.”

But Cotchin urged fans not to be too disenchanted with the opening losses for the team was very raw and still learning what was required at the top level, as well as how to play with each other.

“I think we can take a lot out of the game and also learn from it,” he said.
 
 “Our commitment to the contest was good and we were working hard for each other up until half way through the third quarter.”