You're playing St Kilda this week, of course Scott Watters is going to say that, it's standard crap from the opposition coach before the game.
Cotchin is not elite. Not yet, anyway. I'm not saying he won't be, but he simply isn't in the class of Ablett, Pendlebury, Swan, Judd, Mitchell and Selwood.
Sure, the Richmond midfield is good. I never said it wasn't. It's not 'great' just yet though, at least not on a consistent enough basis to make the finals. Collingwood, Geelong, Carlton, WCE and Essendon all have elite midfields and so far they're 0-5 against them. When they start beating teams like this on a consistent basis, then they will be considered a 'great' midfield.
Jack Riewoldt could quite possible win the Coleman again, but that doesn't mean they will make the finals. Where did you finish last time he won it? At the moment he's too much of a sook. As soon as he doesn't get the ball delivered exactly where he wants it, he sooks and his effort is non-existent. Too much standing around when he doesn't get the ball, not enough chasing, tackling, winning the ball or applying pressure.
The back line is very young and still get pushed around a bit. That's not their fault, and I'm sure they will get bigger and stronger as they get older, but at the moment the inexperience down back can be a problem.
Let's look at their remaining matches:
St K - lose
Freo (H) - win
GWS - win
Adel (A) - lose
Melb - win
GC (A) - win
NM - 50/50
Carl - lose
Bris (A) - 50/50
WB - 50/50
Freo (A) - lose
Ess - lose
Port (H) - win
I'll give you a guaranteed 5 wins, plus 1 more from the 3 50/50 wins for a total of 6. They already have 4 wins, so that makes a total of 10. Considering the number of 'easy wins' that are out there this season, it might take 12 wins to sneak into the Top 8, so they'll need to find another 2 wins out of the remaining 50/50 or 'lose' games.
Lastly, and I mentioned this earlier, they're currently in 10th, which means 2 teams need to fall below them for Richmond to make the Top 8. Which 2 of those 9 teams do you think will fall below the Tigers?