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Cox heading to Collingwood and playing on for one more season in 2015 appears a match made in heaven, a win-win for everyone.
The West Coast ruckman is an iconic figure at the Eagles, no doubt and if there’s a TV ad to be done, it’s either Coxy or Freo’s Aaron Sandilands that will do it. Cox also has a hand in a Claremont restaurant with former team-mate Andrew Embley and is basically a man about town.
The problem, though, is that West Coast doesn’t want him next season. Coach Adam Simpson has virtually said the 33-year-old has been asked to retire as the club looks to keep Scott Lycett on its books.
Through the year, the Eagles have struggled to fit ruckmen Cox, Nic Naitanui and the emerging Lycett into the side. Lycett’s form, though, has been good enough to warrant attention from his home state of South Australia, with Port Adelaide apparently interested in the big man.
But with West Coast wanting to shore up a future ruck combo of Naitanui – the club’s promotional face - and Lycett, the only way forward is for Lycett to be almost guaranteed a place in the side, something that can’t happen if Cox remains.
“He’s taken the hit for the team in retiring,” declared Eagles coach Adam Simpson to 6PR on Monday night. “It’s something that he’s acknowledged I think.”
Having played 287 matches so far, if Cox walks away completely at the end of 2014, he’ll miss the chance of joining that elusive 300 club.
But heading to Collingwood for a season may give him the chance to achieve 300 games, while helping the Magpies in a big way as well.
With Darren Jolly delisted at the end of last year, the ruck has been one of Collingwood’s real problem areas in 2014 as Brodie Grundy’s form has tailed off and Jarrod Witts hasn’t hit the level he’s hinted at.
Collingwood’s also had veteran Ben Hudson on the list, although the journeyman ruckman is pretty much just a coach as his body’s more battered than Jolly’s.
Collingwood’s ruck issues have seen the club linked with Brisbane’s Stefan Martin, but the Magpies do have two quality emerging ruckmen on their hands. And, what better way to develop them, than having them coached by one of the best in Cox out on the ground with them.
Jesse White has also struggled as a pinch-hitting ruckman/forward and having a player like Cox resting in the forward line would be a serious foil for Travis Cloke.
Collingwood also have connections with Cox as well, with former West Coast midfield coach Scott Burns now an assistant at the Westpac Centre. If anyone can arrange a quiet meeting with Cox down at Claremont’s Koko Black, it would be Burns.
Sure, Cox has announced he’ll retire but the ruckman wouldn’t be the first player to do that and then play on again the next season, especially if there’s a 300-game milestone beckoning. After all, the Maggies tempted Hudson out of retirement too.
Collingwood have been linked with others and any approach for Cox may be dependent on whether they’re successful in enticing Melbourne defender James Frawley to the Westpac Centre.
Pies football manager Rodney Eade said the club would need plenty of cash to nab Frawley in a bid to boost their young backline, but he didn’t categorically rule it out when asked on Triple M before the clash with Adelaide.
If the club doesn’t get Frawley, maybe there’d be cash in the bank for Cox.
Cox probably won’t leave Perth. He loves West Coast dearly and his entire life is out west. But on the other hand, it looks like he’s been asked to retire by the Eagles and he doesn’t owe that club anything either. A clandestine meeting with Collingwood couldn’t hurt, could it?
The Magpies do have a poor record with ex-Eagles. The less said about Quinten Lynch, Scott Cummings and Chad Morrison the better. But Cox is a different kettle of fish and a ruckman of his quality on the open market, one of the most valuable commodities there is.