Player Watch Mason Cox

[Billys Back]

For all the haters he’s statistically a very good ruck forward. And an underrated ruck... I think he’d walk into the primary ruck role at a few other AFL clubs

No fault of his own that the club hasn’t recruited/traded in a talented full forward... so he’s burdened to be the primary or secondary target

My only gripe with Cox has ever been a) the expectations of him b) the money he has been on. Not mutually exclusive I suppose.

For better or worse we are stuck with him and Cameron up front for a while I think...

Where I disagree is that he is a ‘Forward’ who relieves in the ruck. And he plays deep forward with a fair amount of the ball heading in his direction. Unfortunately he rarely plays more than 1 quarter. He really should be kicking 2 goals a game or at the very least 30 goals a season. He has only kicked more than 20 goals once.
Unless he can play for 3 qtrs, I’d prefer to give Cameron a go with a solid group of games to see how he goes. I think he has a lot of improvement in him in that he has only played 10 games of footy and has shown aggression and capable of taking a mark.
Maybe we should see more rotation between Cox and Grundy to see what he can do in the ruck.

 

[manicpie]

They got no opportunities as they didn’t present time and time we got the ball looked up and saw a line of Richmond defenders

There were times when Richmond had 10 defenders and we had 5 forwards, no wonder they kept sweeping the ball out of defence

 

[MoreMoore]

scratch courtesy of Mr Broad. Not sure how that doesn’t qualify as head high contact, albeit accidental..

Looked very deliberate

 

[PieLebo87]

A shining light, albeit a small one, from Friday night.

Was great to see Mason still apply scoreboard pressure and get involved despite the limited ball movement into our forward half.

Fairly good game by him with 15 possessions, 6 marks, 2 goals and 4 score involvements for a KPF in a game we had just 41 I50s and scored 53 points.

 

[pablo disco bar]

first time ive seen him perform a spoil..

Good to see him going for marks in the backline

If more stuck would be a gun

 

[loki04]

A shining light, albeit a small one, from Friday night.

Was great to see Mason still apply scoreboard pressure and get involved despite the limited ball movement into our forward half.

Fairly good game by him with 15 possessions, 6 marks, 2 goals and 4 score involvements for a KPF in a game we had just 41 I50s and scored 53 points.

Given the midfield capitulation he had a decent game, still feel he pushes to deep sometimes but in saying that we often use him as a bail out of defence option.

Need Grundy to do better at making himself that bail out option so Cox can hang back and allow for faster breaks from mids/hbfs that they can then release to him at or in the f50.

 

[sr36]

A shining light, albeit a small one, from Friday night.

Was great to see Mason still apply scoreboard pressure and get involved despite the limited ball movement into our forward half.

Fairly good game by him with 15 possessions, 6 marks, 2 goals and 4 score involvements for a KPF in a game we had just 41 I50s and scored 53 points.

He was good. I think he will have a good year.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Yeah, he dropped a lot marks you'd want your key forward to take (e.g. got his hands to it but the ball bounced out with little spoiling pressure), but to get 2 goals despite that is strong. Definite upside if a few more can stick.

 

[PieLebo87]

Given the midfield capitulation he had a decent game, still feel he pushes to deep sometimes but in saying that we often use him as a bail out of defence option.

Need Grundy to do better at making himself that bail out option so Cox can hang back and allow for faster breaks from mids/hbfs that they can then release to him at or in the f50.

That’s a string to Grundy’s bow that would benefit the team more, and releases Cox a bit more to do what he’s paid to do.

 

[sr36]

Yeah, he dropped a lot marks you'd want your key forward to take (e.g. got his hands to it but the ball bounced out with little spoiling pressure), but to get 2 goals despite that is strong. Definite upside if a few more can stick.

The ones he dropped were in the middle of big packs, where other key forwards wouldn't have got their hands to it. noone takes many pack marks.

 

[PieLebo87]

4 contested marks in a night our midfielders were playing with what seemed to be a soapy footy they couldn’t f-ing pick up off the ground first grab.

 

[Doc1763]

I think the extra time he'll get on the ball will do him, and us, the world of good.

 

[Horaceg]

This faster style of game will suit Mason, we need to get on board with the new style of play. Mason one on one is a tough prospect, you can’t out “tall” him.

 

[Lockyer24]

Last night on the couch they cherry picked some examples where Mason was caught all at sea when we were transitioning forward.

We obviously need to have him deep when we are winning territory (which wasn’t Friday) but he also needs to be a little more tied to the forward line. He should be a great presence for on rushing crumbers or even make teams need to worry about him a little more one out and open up decoy opportunities.

 

[stormskye]

Last night on the couch they cherry picked some examples where Mason was caught all at sea when we were transitioning forward.

We obviously need to have him deep when we are winning territory (which wasn’t Friday) but he also needs to be a little more tied to the forward line. He should be a great presence for on rushing crumbers or even make teams need to worry about him a little more one out and open up decoy opportunities.

Should never leave the 50, He ain’t nick Riewoldt. If you are a defender on Cox, if he pushes up the ground he’s doing your job for you

 

[jonmacTrag]

Should never leave the 50, He ain’t nick Riewoldt. If you are a defender on Cox, if he pushes up the ground he’s doing your job for you

He will never, ever get any sort of a fair deal from the umpires and deep forward just allows the defenders to monster him with complete immunity from their actions.
I don't say going up the ground is going to turn him into Riewoldt but it's certainly not worse than setting him up as the tethered goat.

 

[jackcass]

He will never, ever get any sort of a fair deal from the umpires and deep forward just allows the defenders to monster him with complete immunity from their actions.
I don't say going up the ground is going to turn him into Riewoldt but it's certainly not worse than setting him up as the tethered goat.

Yeah, 6 of 1 and 1/2 dozen the other for me. He needs to be more flexible but my preference would be that if he's playing forward he doesn't get beyond the centre line. Still allows him to lead up further, but positions him better to get back inside F50 for a 1v1 against a defender.

 

[Kappa]

This faster style of game will suit Mason, we need to get on board with the new style of play. Mason one on one is a tough prospect, you can’t out “tall” him.

Yep, he struggles in big packs because he can't run and jump at the ball.

1 on 1 with fast ball movement he is extremely dangerous.

 

[pies 4 ever]

Only 3 players took more than 4 contested marks, Defenders in Moore (6) and Lever (4), Cox was the only forward. That's a very good return, considering how badly we played.

 

[Piestration]

There was several times in the last game where went long to a tall option out of the backline only to find both Grundy & Cox spoiling each other. Hopefully they can sort that sh?t out.

Grundy doesn't even look like taking a grab at the moment so they need to start communicating or separating otherwise the ball hits the ground with 2 very slow players and the opposition spreads from the contest and an easy inside 50 entry.

It's TV destroying.

 

[Kappa]

almost game, struggled but still kicked his 2 and helped out in the ruck.

 

[jamieb1983]

Did his job. If only he could clunk a few more hed kick 4 a game...

 

[domus]

almost game, struggled but still kicked his 2 and helped out in the ruck.

Set up Pendles for an inspirational skipper's goal and Pendles muffed it.

 

[PieLebo87]

8 score involvements from 10 possessions is a decent effort.

 

[Kappa]

Set up Pendles for an inspirational skipper's goal and Pendles muffed it.

he always does, he cannot kick goals under pressure his whole career.