Cotchin injured his achilles tendon by over-training in the pre-season, Cousins and Raines both copped injuries in the round-one thrashing at the hands of Carlton, while Coughlan has fought for nearly three years to return to AFL ranks.
Richmond senior coach Terry Wallace watched Coburg on the weekend, and was happy with what he saw.
"I only saw a little bit – I went out to the game, but obviously with getting ourselves organised for [Richmond v Melbourne on Saturday night] I only saw a little bit of it, so I couldn't give you a full report," he said.
"All I could say was when the ball was in Cotchy's hands, it was in pretty safe hands.
"He's still got a few yards to do, and I think Rainsey a little bit the same, they've missed a bit of footy."
Wallace said the difference in level between AFL and VFL was significant.
"I think early in the year it's really hard to expect guys to play one game and jump back into calculations straight away – I reckon you need two or three games under your belt just to get yourself to playing this type of footy.
"All of the guys were out on their feet tonight – you come from VFL level with one game under your belt and it's pretty tough.
"We'll just have to be careful how we select the side."
One man who has played a few VFL matches over the last little while is Mark Coughlan, who made his long-awaited return to the AFL last weekend in the win over North Melbourne.
He said just having injured players like Cotchin and Cousins back at training was a plus for the side.
"That's a real positive for the guys, having them back out on the track," Coughlan said.
"I'm not sure when they're going to be back – Cotchy played last week and played pretty well – he's a hard in-and-under good stoppage player that we need in there.
"And Cuzzy is obviously not far away as well, so having both of them back is going to boost the team."
