No SJ, I'm very aware that being part of successful team is not an automatic ticket for individual acknowledgement, any more than being part of a poor side excludes a player from individual recognition. Nat Fyfe is a testimony to the latter - best player in the comp right now, while the rest of his team can hardly get out of their own way.
I dunno about Cotchin, but there's certainly a clear mentality that judges Alex Rance on a different scale to most other defenders. Maybe it's because he's been AA so many times in the past and they're sick of it, or maybe it's attributed to footy pundits wanting to get onboard someone unique to expound their footy viewing chops, or maybe they just want to prop up their own players who they feel are not getting adequate recognition, and the best mechanism for that is to detract from the one who has been the principal. Either way, it's clear Rance has to be multiple times better than many other players who's names are being bandied around - hell, I've read rolling backline nominations for Sicily and Rampe FFS - in order to make the squad.
I've seen Rance play live 7 times so far this season and he's been the dominant defender on the footy ground in at least 5 of them. And I'm never more content and confident that something positive will unfold as a Tiger supporter as I am when the ball is in his hands - Rance is just so organised, calm, creative and 360 degree aware. And he patrols the entire defensive half of the G like a Doberman defending his own backyard.
Yep, Caddy's been good, but Riewoldt's been better, at least up until last weekend. Now they've both missed one game each it's evened up.
I apologise if that seemed patronising - that wasn't my intention. I was just trying emphasise the correlation between the Cotchin/Rance dominance figure and the 8-2 win/loss ratio.