'USA! USA! USA!': The premiership-winning journey of Mason Cox is doing more than just charming the Americans

I think Friends is a great TV show – and its star actress Courtney Cox is on my ‘list’ for now and for always. But that is where my interest in America ends really. I like basketball but do not like the NBA. I am interested in politics but cannot stand Donald Trump. I like hot chips but I put mayonnaise on them instead of tomato sauce (ketchup).

The United States lost me a long time ago – well, that is until now – after big Collingwood ruckman Mason Cox became a premiership player in the AFL.

Now there is an argument that the Cox era should never have happened. Some dismiss his signing as a product of misguided effort from some pork-barrelling members of the AFL to find footballers overseas (when they are missing out on so many back at home). That, however, is a conversation for another day, because all that is none of the big Texan’s fault, he just answered the call and got on a plane.

The idea that someone can come across what is surely the hardest sport in the world to play at just 24 years of age and win one of its biggest accolades some seven years later is absurd. So ridiculous that it is a story that deserves telling from many angles (and I am sure it will be).

The first is of course that Cox, as an individual, needs to be congratulated for what he has achieved. The second is that those who showed him the way and believed in the idea need to be rewarded for what they created – and the game is better for it happening.

Under the bright lights of AFL’s ‘big dance’, Cox showed that what these coaches had created was a footballer of supreme effectiveness. Footy can get lost in a tangled web of stats so let us leave them to the side and talk about some of the efforts that he was able to deliver in the biggest of games.

There were efforts of strength and there were efforts of skill. Then there were efforts of game sense that made Cox a key contributor to the Pies’ premiership.

In terms of strength, Oscar McInerney is called ‘The Big O’ for a very good reason – he is big. He is also very effective at the all-important stoppage, where his reach and his power often give his Lions are leg up. When he is not smacking the footy a significant distance, he is standing up under pressure, picking up the Sherrin and kicking it well.

This is a key to the Lions’ game plan. But when the big Magpie was playing on ball today, Cox took that away from the boys from Brisbane. He matched McInerney for reach, strength and smacked his fair share of hitouts the other way.

Do not forget his skill; Cox is a good kick of the football (how that is possible is beyond me – but he is). Although he did not kick a goal in the Grand Final, his ability to get forward of the ball and take reliable shots on goal is testimony to his skill.

A testament that should also be awarded to his ability to take a mark. He is a big bloke, and he takes marks high above the reach of most and the couple he took in contested situations today were important and well grabbed. With just seven or eight years behind him, Cox has a skill level that no longer looks out of place at the highest level. That is extraordinary.

Last but not least, he has game sense. The fact that footy is a truly 360-degree game and is played with an oval ball that is expected to hit the ground sure makes it the toughest game in the world. It is not just a matter of seeing a ball and chasing it – that really gets you nowhere.

You have to be able to think about it. There was a time early in the second half when Cox gave away a centre-bounce free kick and the ‘Big O’ would have the chance to pump his Lions forward. The kick was deep into his forward fifty – but who would be there to take the mark, but Cox. The big American had understood his role clearly after the free kick had been awarded.

He had a small amount of time to sprint sixty or seventy metres, set up physically in the ‘hole’ and then watch the ball. It may seem like a small effort to some, but it was a clear sign of a smart footballer. A premiership footballer.

There are obviously people who have helped him along the way. People who developed his skills and his understanding of the great Australian game. They deserve credit for what they saw when I am sure there were many who saw something quite the opposite.

Perhaps for the first time since Courtney Cox in Friends, something good has come out of the US of A.