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Pokes in the Pros

Mason Cox Scores in AFL Debut, Collingwood Wins Big

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Mason Cox made his debut with the big boy Collingwood club in Australia on Sunday night (Monday in Australia in case you didn’t know how time zones work). Cox had previously been playing with Collingwood’s minor league club but was called up to the bigs on Anzac Day which is Australia and New Zealand’s Veteran’s Day.

All he did was score the first goal as Collingwood romped Essendon 142-73. Here’s a look (listen to the announcer).

“Oh this could be a fairytale,” said the announcer. “He’s a Cowboy as they all are at that university.” What a shout out. What a moment. I’m getting chills watching and listening to it. Here are the rest of his highlights for the night.

“I was petrified,” said Mason. “80,000 people there in a game I’ve only been playing for two years. Cool, let’s try this out. Luckily it went through. It’s amazing what’s happened the over the last few years of my life. It’s been a crazy rollercoaster and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

His coach was quite pleased with the opening performance from Mason.

And the locals are taking notice. Here’s an excerpt from The Age:

At the final siren, Cox had a long chat with Hartley, and another on camera with a bloke from Channel 7 who he could scarcely have known was a former vice-captain of the team he had just played against, and then lost himself in the throng of happy Magpies. There was no fuss now; he was simply one of them, a contributor, an Anzac Day winner. “Ride, ride, ride, ride on Cowboys, to victory.” But also: Good old this team he had not heard of until a couple of years ago. He knows how to play the game.

And of course Nolan and the rest of his family enjoyed it. True story: Nolan and I were emailing about this on Wednesday and I asked him to remind me that it was on Sunday night. Next thing I know, I have an email from him on Friday saying he hopped on a plane to Australia to watch Mason’s debut.

“The first bounce, (it) gets underway and within two minutes here’s Mason with a mark – I couldn’t believe it,” his dad told ESPN. “And he scores. We were just thrilled. It was just the ultimate thrill.”

It couldn’t have been more perfect.

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