Trent Cotchin has announced his retirement from AFL football.
The three-time Richmond premiership captain will finish up with the Tigers at the conclusion of the 2023 season.
Cotchin will step aside after 16 years at the top level which has seen him play 305 games, win a Brownlow Medal and three Jack Dyer Medals.
He informed his teammates of his decision on Thursday morning.
“I am going to miss with all my heart the relationships, memories and experiences I have had these past 305 games,” he said in a statement released by the club.
“I accept reality and that my chapter has come to an end. My body is somewhat slowing down and is older than it once was.”
The 33-year-old added: “I found my life purpose at Richmond.
“I look to the future with nothing but excitement, adventure, and opportunity, because of what I found here at Richmond and what Richmond people taught me.
“Finding out that creating an environment to help other realise and fulfill their potential not only inspired me but helped me to overcome my own fears.
“I found the move from ‘I’ to ‘we’ and that to be interested not interesting was so much more fun. I learned the power to dream big at Richmond, to say why not me. Why not us? And why not now.
“I have always given my best and left no stone unturned, in my dads words- I have strived to make every post a winner.”
Cotchin was drafted with pick 2 in the 2007 AFL Draft.
He captained the Tigers on 188 occasions, a club record, guiding the side back to relevance by overseeing their drought-breaking 2017 premiership, prior to the 2019 and 2020 back-to-back flags.
Cotchin will leave Punt Road as an all-time great.