Mark Coughlan
By Chris Greenway

Richmond picked up a tough blond headed kid by the name of Mark Coughlan in the 2000 draft. I don't remember a lot about him at the time other than we'd used the draft pick everything thought we'd use on Jason (son of David) Cloke and that he didn't seem to be all that thrilled at being picked up by the Tigers. He is a West Australian so I suppose that is understandable. He only played a couple of games that I can remember in 2001. The first one was against Melbourne and he didn't do a lot, but I remember him running down Jeff Farmer and thinking: 'this kid has a bit of toe'. The following game he seemed to be a touch slower, but had great hands and feet. He really got noticed in the 2nd half of 2002. We'd tried everything else in the centre. Cogs was supposed to be a midfielder, why not? This kid was born to play centre. He's tough, hard, quick, smart hands and feet, loves a goal. He did so well that he polled highly on our best and fairest count even though he hadn't played more than half the games. This year though has really been the making of him. With Johnson to bring him on he has grown in stature and ability. He's what we call a gun player. This is a big call, but I'm going to make it anyway: give him 5 years maybe less and he will be to Richmond what Michael Voss is to Brisbane and will be mentioned by all supporters in the same breath. Mark my words.

Agree? Disagree? Tell me about it! I'll post your comments here, too!

From Jessica Eyre, Saturday, March 12, 2005 3:54 AM
I agree with the player review, but I need to say he's also very sexy.
Jess

From Cogsfan24, July 2003
hey becky! Your profile on chaffy was great! I would love to see one on Mark Coughlan. Hes my fav player--> love him to bits! I dont have any goss on him or aything i was hoping you would provide something enjoyable to read! hehe. It would b great if u could do that. Congrats on your site its really good!!

From Pelic, August 2003
Mark Couglan played another ripper along with Johnson and Tivendale. I believe that Cogs will win the Jack Dyer Medal this year and probably the Prime Advice Player of the Year as well. He deserves it.

From: Chris Greenway
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 2:50 AM
Subject: How good is Mark Coughlan?
Hi Becky,
I found out this little titbit on the PRE site today. Apparently at Friday's intraclub match Mark Coughlan was wearing a black armband. People wondered why and apparently there was a young girl, name of Alyce, who had been suffering from cystic fibrosis, she was 15 and she died on Friday morning. She was a big Tigers fan and particularly liked Mark. He used to go visit her and SMS'ed her and they formed a friendship and he made her difficult life easier and brighter, he wore the armband as a mark of respect. I thought you might like to know that, he's a class bloke both on and off the field.

Chris.