Mason Cox gets a second shot as Dockers chase history
Mason Cox will chase a second AFL premiership with his second club when Fremantle faces Brisbane in the September 2026 Grand Final.
Fremantle has never won a flag. The Dockers go in as minor premiers after a club-record 19 wins in 2026, including 14 straight victories, according to ABC. Cox kicked the go-ahead goal in the win over Sydney that locked in their Grand Final berth.
It is an unlikely second act. Cox was delisted by Collingwood after 139 games in October the year before joining Fremantle. He won a premiership with the Magpies in 2023 and played in his first Grand Final back in 2018.
Fremantle signed him as cover. The plan was for the 211cm ruck-forward — the tall man who contests the ball-up at stoppages and then pushes forward to mark and kick goals — to sit behind established ruck pair Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy. He wears No. 18 for the Dockers.
The door opened in round six. Darcy missed the western derby against West Coast due to concussion. Cox came into the side and played 19 of the next 21 games.
He made himself hard to drop. The Texan, recruited from Oklahoma State University with no Australian football background, had spent 11 seasons at Collingwood and kicked 127 goals there, Fremantle said when announcing the move, per Fremantle FC. He was 34 when the Dockers picked him up as a Supplemental Selection Period signing, a late lifeline for delisted players outside the national draft.
Fremantle supporters know the back story. Cox kicked three goals in Collingwood’s 39-point win over defending premiers Richmond in September 2018 to reach that year’s Grand Final at the MCG. Now he is trying to stop Brisbane with Fremantle.
Keep an eye on him and Lion Dayne Zorko. The pair loom as the provocateurs-in-chief for Grand Final day, as described by The West, with a history of on-field hostilities set to reignite, according to Nine. Zorko plays for Brisbane. Neither gives an inch.
There was a tough call at the other end. Fremantle defender Brennan Cox missed selection for the Grand Final, with the Dockers retaining Oscar McDonald instead as the third tall defender, per AFL.com.au. No relation needed for the headline. Just two Coxes, one in, one out.
What makes this stand out is the simplicity of it. A back-up big man. A first-time club. A second chance on the last Saturday in September. Cox is contracted until 2027. For one afternoon, that future can wait.
