Just before half-time of Saturday night’s game at the MCG, two very different footballers went toe-to-toe on the members wing: Trent Cotchin, who looks like an articled clerk but plays a blue collar game, and Bailey Smith, who looks as if he’s just stepped off a float at Royal Randwick.
With Cotchin right on his hammer, Smith spilled a chest mark. The 32-year-old Tiger, who recently relinquished the Richmond captaincy, has always excelled at ground ball scrimmages. On this occasion, he was better balanced, a bit cannier and that little bit more ferocious than his 21-year-old rival. Cotchin got the faintest of fingers on a stationary ball, which released Noah Balta, and it led to a Tom Lynch goal.
