Cotchin’s sixth-placed Richmond faces fifth-placed Freo at the MCG this Sunday.
He said Crowley typified the renowned discipline and effort Fremantle’s senior coach demands of his players.
“Ross Lyon drives a pretty hard bargain and if you don’t want to jump on that ship, then you wont be finding yourself in the side,” Cotchin told 6PR’s Sports Today.
“You only have to look at the number one tagger and the way he goes about his business every week, Ryan Crowley.
“The reason why he’s become such a good tagger in the game is because of the disciplined guys around him who are either helping him out or taking a leaf out of his book in the way he goes about his role.”
Cotchin did not expect Crowley to tag him on Sunday, but he welcomed the challenge if it came.
“He’s gone to ‘Lids’ (Brett Deledio) the last three of four times, and I think he’s had pretty good success on him, so I’d be surprised if they change it up,” he said.
Fremantle will be without captain Matthew Pavlich and small forward Hayden Ballantyne, as well as All Australian defender Luke McPharlin.
Cotchin said the Tigers, who have only beaten eighth-placed Port Adelaide from teams currently in the top eight, were eager to claim the scalp of a quality side above them on the ladder.
“We would have loved to attack them (Fremantle) with their full side in,” he said.
“We keep getting questioned about the way we play against bigger and better sides, and that’s our challenge going forward, we need to beat some top class sides, and Fremantle are one of them.
“They are the hardest team to score against, so hopefully we can get our defensive game up initially and slow them down, and wind our offensive game up.”
