Richmond's midfield coach Brian Royal has paid young gun Trent Cotchin the ultimate AFL compliment, comparing him favourably to Chris Judd.

Cotchin has been outstanding since his AFL debut in round eight against Geelong and will feature prominently in the league's Rising Star Award.

"I don't think he's winning the same amount of ball as Judd, but what you'll see with Trent, once he gets it, something happens," Royal said.

"He's got the composure that Chris Judd has.

"I've been involved in the game for over 20 years and he's quite unique in the talent that he's got.

"Richmond are going to have a very, very good player for a long, long time."

Cotchin made an immediate impact when he was a late replacement for the round-eight clash at the MCG and he will be in the thick of it again on Saturday night when the two sides play at Telstra Dome.

The 18-year-old, who was the No.2 pick in last year's draft, goalled with his first kick in senior football.

He took so long to make his debut because of off-season injuries and has quickly made up for the delay.

Royal said Cotchin would challenge Fremantle midfielder Rhys Palmer and Hawthorn excitement machine Cyril Rioli for the Rising Star.

"Trent's been outstanding, particularly given he missed a fair amount of the pre-season and came in late," Royal said.

"Palmer has been in pretty good form and so has Rioli, there's no doubt it's a three-horse race.

"Trent's form in the last few games I think will play a major part in who finishes with the award."

Cotchin and his team-mates will certainly need to be at their best on Saturday to match the Cats, who continue to build unstoppable momentum ahead of the finals.

While the Tigers are unchanged, the Cats recalled All-Australians Cameron Ling and Darren Milburn for Paul Chapman (hamstring) and David Johnson.

"They're in terrific form - they're missing a couple of their key players and that's great, but they have very, very good backup players and it's going to be a tough ask for us," Royal said.

"But our form over the last five or six weeks has been pretty good and it just gives us an opportunity to probably measure ourselves against the best team in the competition.

The Tigers matched Geelong in round eight for the first half, but went down by five goals.

"If we're any chance to beat them tomorrow night, we've got to play four quarters and that's probably an area we haven't done over the past month or so," Royal said.

"Although we're winning games, there's still been a lapse at some stage in the game."

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