Following Melbourne’s thrilling victory over Collingwood, there was a heated exchange post-match between American ruckman Mason Cox and Melbourne’s Christian Petracca. The confrontation came as an unexpected aftermath to the Demon’s narrow four-point win at the MCG. Petracca, unfazed by the incident, has since offered an apology to Cox.
Cox, the central figure in this contentious episode, shared his perspective on the incident in his Mason Cox Show podcast. He elucidated, “We’ve had the conversation, ‘Trac’ and I, after this. He apologised and shook my hand. It was the heat of the moment, and now we move on. Max Gawn, the captain of Melbourne, was there amidst us. Although I didn’t foresee the exchange at the end of the game, I was not really offended. He was just exhilarated from the victory, and we move forward.”
In the immediate aftermath, both teams attempted to pacify the situation, with Magpies teammates working to calm Cox and Melbourne’s Gawn intervening between the pair. Cox, however, brushed Gawn aside and engaged Petracca once more. The tense scene saw Petracca jabbing his finger into Cox’s chest and exiting with a scowl, without the customary handshake.
Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard and Josh Daicos stepped in to defuse the situation, as the players from both sides continued their post-match courtesies around the towering Texan.
Addressing the situation later from the Demons’ locker room, Petracca dismissed the confrontation as “just heat of the moment stuff.” He added, “We’re fine. It’s all good. What happens on the field, stays on the field.”
Melbourne’s victory has brought them within a hair’s breadth of premiership favouritism. Petracca commented, “We needed that win. That was awesome. Football doesn’t owe you anything; you have to work for it. I believe we’ve prepared exceptionally well for the games in the past few weeks, and it was a fantastic effort.”
Meanwhile, the defeat put an end to Collingwood’s eight-game winning streak. Cox had an off day on the field and could do little to prevent Brodie Grundy from dismantling his former club. Grundy, who had signed a hefty seven-year, $1 million per-season contract with Collingwood in 2019, was traded to Melbourne at the close of 2022 as the Magpies sought to alleviate their salary cap.
