RICHMOND young gun Trent Cotchin has followed directly in the footsteps of his former Northern Knights teammate Matthew Kreuzer, picking up a NAB AFL Rising Star nomination just seven days after his Carlton mate earned his.

Cotchin, 18, has been impressive for a number of weeks now and was prolific in the Tigers' round 11 loss to Adelaide, but as occurred in the 2007 NAB AFL Draft, was pipped slightly by Kreuzer and had to wait until this week to be nominated.

"It's been really good – even better when you win," Cotchin laughed, when asked of his season so far.

"I said to 'Kreuz', you must have had a big last quarter [last weekend] to be nominated.

"But I just love playing. There's nothing better; a lot people dream of it and I've finally got the opportunity to play.

"You've got to make the most of your opportunities while you can."

Cotchin joined the Tigers via selection No. 2 overall in last year's NAB AFL Draft, and arrived at the club fresh off crutches after breaking his ankle in the TAC Cup finals series.

He recalled it was maddening to be drafted to the Punt Road club while still on injury restrictions, which were only lengthened when he developed achilles complications soon after.

"It was pretty frustrating, as you can imagine, because all you want to do is prove yourself to the other guys," he said.

"It was tough over the months I was injured, but now that I'm out there, there's nothing better."

The inflamed achilles, which developed when he returned to running as a result of lost calf strength during the ankle layoff, meant Cotchin couldn't complete a pre-season with his new club and was kept from full training until February this year.

"It's been pretty tough to run out games without a pre-season, and I'm really looking forward to that next year. If all goes well, it will be interesting to see how much further I can run," he admitted.

"It will be so much different. Second halves can be hard right now; the legs get a bit heavy and I think your mind can start thinking about that rather than the actual game.

"I feel a lot better with every game I play so that's a positive."

Cotchin played his first game in round eight after being granted a last-minute call up owing to Adam Pattison's late omission.

While the emerging talent conceded he would have liked more notice ahead of the match to invite people along, he was glad to escape the usual fanfare surrounding debuts.

"It was probably better in the end because I had a really good night's sleep the night before and I wasn't stressed out," he said.

"The build up to the game was better for me but there was less opportunity to get friends and family there."

Cotchin admitted he was a Geelong supporter as a kid, but "always liked Richmond", especially fellow young talent Brett Deledio.

He said Deledio, 21, has been a great help this season as he becomes familiar with the pressures of being such a highly-touted talent, while the club's captain has offered a different kind of assistance.

"I live with Kane Johnson so he's been tremendous in the support he's offered," Cotchin said.

"It's a pretty good bonus to live with the captain, as you learn a lot of little tricks from someone like him."

Cotchin joins Bachar Houli (Essendon), Josh Hill (Western Bulldogs), Rhys Palmer (Fremantle), Kieren Jack (Sydney), Ben McKinley (West Coast), Cyril Rioli (Hawthorn), Austin Wonaeamirri (Melbourne), Kurt Tippett (Adelaide), Garrick Ibbotson (Fremantle), Nathan Brown (Collingwood) and Matthew Kreuzer (Carlton) as contenders for this year's prize.