Richmond captain Trent Cotchin is striving to extract the maximum out of the considerable football talent he possesses.

Cotchin, at just 23 years of age, has already achieved plenty in just over five years of league football (two Jack Dyer Medals, equal runner-up in the Brownlow Medal and All-Australian selection for starters) – but he has a burning desire to be an even better player.

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“I would think that I’m one of my harshest critics, and that’s what I always talk to “Dimma” (coach Damien Hardwick) about,” he told ‘Roar Vision’.

“There are a lot of parts of my game that I really want to work on.

“Defence is probably number one for this week.  It’s going to be my major focus.

“But, not only that, it’s good to get your hands on the footy, and I don’t think I’ve done that quite to the extent that I did in the back part of last year.  So, I’ll be focusing on that.

“You never lose your talent – it’s just the hard work that you’ve got to make sure you’re ticking off.”

Opposition sides have put more work into negating Cotchin’s influence in matches this year, following his stellar 2012 season, but the star midfielder is unperturbed by that.

“I think “Lids” (Brett Deledio) has actually copped a fair bit more attention this season that I have,” Cotchin said.

“Teams are hitting up on me and making sure there’s always pressure on me around a stoppage and so forth, because that’s probably where I do my best work.

“But it’s just one of those things you need to always revisit and make sure that you’re improving every week.”