Brennan Cox made his name as a bulking centre half forward playing in front of Alex Pearce in a defence that has risen in stature to be top two in 2024. With Pearce now out for a significant part of the remainder of the season with injury, Cox will likely shift to full back to allow Joshua Draper to slot in at CHB and allow Luke Ryan to play his natural zone-off game. The previous Derby saw one of the biggest upsets of the season, in retrospect, including a big bag of goals for Jake Waterman. Cox's role on West Coast's dangerous tall forward cadre will be crucial.
Brennan Cox made his name as a bulking centre half forward playing in front of Alex Pearce in a defence that has risen in stature to be top two in 2024. With Pearce now out for a significant part of the remainder of the season with injury, Cox will likely shift to full back to allow Joshua Draper to slot in at CHB and allow Luke Ryan to play his natural zone-off game. The previous Derby saw one of the biggest upsets of the season, in retrospect, including a big bag of goals for Jake Waterman. Cox's role on West Coast's dangerous tall forward cadre will be crucial.
Brennan has to imagine
Trialled as a defender through preseason, Brennan Cox never got going in the role and eventually played as a key forward at AFL level. After managing over a goal per outing in 2018 Cox failed to recapture that form, dropping his goal output by half. A hamstring injury curtailed him in the second half of the season. Cox is likely to continue in a forward role, and may get a string of senior games early in the season as all three best 22 key forwards are coming off big injuries. He has never shown a propensity for fantasy scoring at any level and expect that trend to continue.
Cox squeezed in pocket
Despite preseason indications that Brennan Cox could play defensively as his did back in his WAFL days, all of his 2018 senior appearances were as a key forward. A 19-touch,five-goal haul against Adelaide proved to be his best return, albeit an outlier in a relatively unassuming season. The South Australian recruit took the necessary development steps, but didn’t turn any heads along the way For a second year player, Cox had a lot of pressure on his shoulders as a focal attack point. The injection of Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb over the trade period will change that in 2019, but skewed negatively. Cox’s scores are already pretty low so they can’t drop too far if his teammates prefer to hit up the other forwards, and with new recruits comes stiffer competition from forwards already on the list. Avoid.
Big hand for Cox
Despite cutting his teeth in the WAFL mostly in defence, Brennan Cox's senior debut in round 12 was as a key forward, and he ended up playing CHF with a bit of ruck support. He booted 4.11 for the season and never threatened to score in startable ranges, though five marks per game was solid for a first-year forward. It was pleasing to see a big Cox at Subiaco one last time. Big blokes of his type typically mature late, and he showed a lot of positive signs over the post-bye stretch. The club has been crying out for someone to stand up and grab a spot in their forward spine, and Cox may be that man. He will probably go undrafted.
