What I learnt on the weekend

[Terry]

As stated above, Cox is 6'11" and can run and catch a ball. The USA with their large population have many of these, Australia has a handful. Therefore Cox fills a niche position in the AFL given his physical attributes.

Yes, he's played a couple of decent games. Since when does this make someone a superstar?

Ok pal. You got me. He's not a superstar...………..but he has been described as being a 'star', playing a 'stunning' game and 'tearing Richmond apart'. All this after never having heard of or seen the game till 2014.

And to top it off part of his college sporting CV is training with the ladiesbasketball team FFS lolololololol. I mean...….. excuse me for having a little chuckle...…...that's just downright hilarious!!!!!

he's played a few impressive games, no doubt. That's what being 6'11" with some athletic ability can do.

According to Wiki he was part of his school's state championship-winning soccer team. For such a tall guy that's pretty impressive running ability.

He started playing basketball as a hobby only while at college studying engineering and was noticed by the University coach who poached him as a walk up player. This was in 2014, the same year he began showing interest in AFL. His very limited basketball highlights included shutting down Joel Embiid who currently stars for the 76ers.

SO I think you guys are wrong trying to claim the guy was some try hard who only ever made the girls team. He sounds like a guy who has plenty of athletic ability but didnt take it anywhere near as seriously as his study. When he did show a little interest he made college basketball level and could match it with some of the best talent. His only real tilt at professional sport was AFL in the same year he played college bball. Not sure how many people could just walk into a college basketball team after barely any experience playing basketball. Sounds like the kind of guy who could walk in to an AFL club with barely any experience.

So you say this bimbo had 'plenty of athletic ability' pal??????? Better read this!

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 ... basketball.

Here's what the bloke himself about his college career:

"Pretty lucklustre" says Cox. "For two years I was not even on the bench. I would suit up but the weights coach and assistant coach got a seat ahead of me. I was at the back near the team manager". Lololololololol.

Here's how the article sums up his sporting ability:

"Other than his size and his unexpected college basketball career, Cox had no real sporting pedigree. I think my dad got a bowling ball and my mon played adult league volleyball". Lololololololololol.

Well I think we can all put our cue's in the rack on this one. The bloke is a plank. A 6'11" plank with 'no sporting pedigree'. Pretty easy to play this Australian Fumbling League I'd say.

[AFLcrap1]

Lol cue the wailing from jungle Jim .

[NlolRL]

Ok pal. You got me. He's not a superstar...………..but he has been described as being a 'star', playing a 'stunning' game and 'tearing Richmond apart'. All this after never having heard of or seen the game till 2014.

And to top it off part of his college sporting CV is training with the ladiesbasketball team FFS lolololololol. I mean...….. excuse me for having a little chuckle...…...that's just downright hilarious!!!!!

he's played a few impressive games, no doubt. That's what being 6'11" with some athletic ability can do.

According to Wiki he was part of his school's state championship-winning soccer team. For such a tall guy that's pretty impressive running ability.

He started playing basketball as a hobby only while at college studying engineering and was noticed by the University coach who poached him as a walk up player. This was in 2014, the same year he began showing interest in AFL. His very limited basketball highlights included shutting down Joel Embiid who currently stars for the 76ers.

SO I think you guys are wrong trying to claim the guy was some try hard who only ever made the girls team. He sounds like a guy who has plenty of athletic ability but didnt take it anywhere near as seriously as his study. When he did show a little interest he made college basketball level and could match it with some of the best talent. His only real tilt at professional sport was AFL in the same year he played college bball. Not sure how many people could just walk into a college basketball team after barely any experience playing basketball. Sounds like the kind of guy who could walk in to an AFL club with barely any experience.

So you say this bimbo had 'plenty of athletic ability' pal??????? Better read this!

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 ... basketball.

Here's what the bloke himself about his college career:

"Pretty lucklustre" says Cox. "For two years I was not even on the bench. I would suit up but the weights coach and assistant coach got a seat ahead of me. I was at the back near the team manager". Lololololololol.

Here's how the article sums up his sporting ability:

"Other than his size and his unexpected college basketball career, Cox had no real sporting pedigree. I think my dad got a bowling ball and my mon played adult league volleyball". Lololololololololol.

Well I think we can all put our cue's in the rack on this one. The bloke is a plank. A 6'11" plank with 'no sporting pedigree'. Pretty easy to play this Australian Fumbling League I'd say.

that's the point, with basically no basketball experience he waltzed into college basketball, probably the second highest basketball standard in the world, and took down Joel Embiid.

[Terry]

'took down' lolololololololololol. Pal the plank played 57 minutes total in 3 years of college basketball. Here's another little article for ya to digest.

https://www.theringer.com/sports/2018/9 ... all-legend

And here's a couple of quotes:

"he wasn’t all that good at basketball".

"Cox played basketball at Oklahoma State from 2011 to 2014, recording 57 total minutes and seven total points." Lol They play nearly 100 games a season at 40 mins per game. And he played 57 mins in 3 seasons lolololololol. Work out the math!!!!

"He mainly rode the bench during his tenure—actually". Lolololol.

"He got some run when the roster suffered a string of injuries in 2014; the defining moment of Cox’s hoops career came when he briefly guarded Joel Embiid without getting embarrassed". Lololololololl. He played a few minutes of that game after everyone else was injured. His sole claim to fame is that in that time Joel Embiid twice turned the ball over after shots on goal lololololololool.

Need I go on pal?????? Or are you going to go on about what a great 'sportsman' he was lolololololol!!!!!

[NlolRL]

You dont just waltz onto a college basketball team as a walk up without having athletic ability. The level would be far higher than the NBL in Australia. Imagine if some guy who never played basketball before, and was far more motivated to study, just rocked up to the Sydney Kings. Whats the chance theyd include him on their list let alone play him if he didnt have amazing athletic ability. Basketball takes years to master ball control even for low levels, let alone college level.

Then came Cox, who’s single-handedly legitimized the hoops-to-footy leap. His journey has been odd: He didn’t even play basketball in high school—he was the goalie for his high school soccer team. He’d picked up hoops so late in life that he wasn’t skilled enough at it to pursue a pro level. And although he didn’t know it, he was uniquely qualified for Aussie rules: His goalie experience made his transition to kicking a football smoother than most basketball converts, and his late growth spurt meant that he was more coordinated than most big men.

.

[NlolRL]

I noticed this in the article you posted:
"There are only so many tall people in Australia. Kevin Sheehan, who’s in charge of international talent acquisition for the league, told Fox Sports in 2016 that the AFL has a “shortage of tall players in the competition.” In the same way American football teams have begun scouting Australian football players because they’re better at punting than our punters, Aussie rules teams have begun scouting our basketball players because they may be better at leaping than Australian ruckmen. The AFL worked with Jonathan Givony, a basketball scout who ran DraftExpress and is now with ESPN, to identify college players who were skilled at rebounding but not skilled enough at the rest of the sport to make the NBA. The AFL then tried to sell them on going Down Under to play a sport of which they’d likely never heard."

This is exactly what I said earlier in the thread. Compared to the USA we have very few near 7 foot athletes in Australia. These players fill a void just like AFL players fill a punting void in the NFL.

This is also why I said name a mid-sized player who has become a successful AFL with no previous experience. Of course there are a few Gaelic football successes but the games share similar skills, hence they can play a modified version of the game at a competitive level.

[NlolRL]

Also, dont think this is an easy transition from college Bball to AFL.

"Shae McNamara, who played basketball for Marist, signed with Collingwood in 2009 but never played in a senior-level game. Eric Wallace, who played for Ohio State, DePaul, and Seattle, signed with North Melbourne in 2012, impressing in the Victorian Football League (an AFL minor league), but also never playing at the senior level. Jason Holmes, who played for Morehead State, signed with St Kilda in 2013 and managed to play in a handful of AFL games in 2015 and 2016 before being cut last year".

As the article said, Cox had decent soccer experience so his foot skills were there. Obviously he could rebound too or he wouldnt have made college team with no basketball experience. Add his 6'11" frame and he was a unique prospect.

[Terry]

Yep. His 6'11" height is his only attribute. Apart from that he's running on empty - totally useless. He said it himself. Reporters in the US said it. His stats in college basketball prove it.

You can go around the goldfish bowl with this one to pal but you've been proven wrong again by evidence, facts and research.

Time to draw a line through another one. Run. Won. Over and out!!!!!!!

[NlolRL]

Yep. His 6'11" height is his only attribute. Apart from that he's running on empty - totally useless. He said it himself. Reporters in the US said it. His stats in college basketball prove it.

At a shade under 7-feet tall and blessed with agility, strength and leaping ability, Mason Cox has some pretty serious advantages in the sport of Australian Rules football. Back at Oklahoma State he was recruited to the basketball team in bizarre circumstances. After initially being spotted playing pick-up ball, he was called in to scrimmage against the Cowboys’ women’s team, which was preparing to play against towering Baylor star Brittney Griner. When members of the men’s team saw him in action, he was asked to join the squad and ultimately played 24 games over three seasons.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2 ... 435608002/

Mason Cox has a history of getting lured into sports he did not actually play. Organized basketball found him first. At Marcus High School in Texas, he stuck to solely to soccer, a decision that looked slightly stranger after he grew six inches between his junior and senior years and found himself a 6-foot-10 goalie. At Oklahoma State and still nearly seven feet tall, Cox caved and gave hoops a try. What does this enormous man do for the Magpies? He’s a ruckman, of course. What is a ruckman? “It’s kind of like I did in college — rebound the ball and give it to someone else,” he translated, for the untrained American ear.

He mostly played soccer growing up and while in college, he picked up recreational basketball because of his enormous size. “It was just one of those things I never really got into [growing up],” he says. “I just picked up a basketball one day and said, Heck, I’m almost seven feet tall, I might as well try it.”https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 ... basketball

Asked to play college basketball with no previous basketball experience, he just picked a basketball up one day and said "why not play"?. That is nothing short of unbelievable! That's like someone playing beach cricket for the first time, being spotted by Warnie, then being asked to join state level cricket. No wonder the yanks said be "was blessed with agility, strength and leaping ability".

You'd have a point if he played Basketball his whole life but never made it. But that's far from the truth, as you now know

[Terry]

Dear oh dear!!!!! Pal...…..the plank played 57 mins in 3 years. That means that in about 4,000 minutes the team played in 3 seasons he played a total of 57...…...yep 57 out of 4,000!!!!!!!

Because he was 6'11" he was used as a training partner for the women's team. Same reason he got a run with the mens team......as a training bollard to stand in the way and wave his hands around. Then when they were decimated by injury he got a few seconds here and there for a total of 57 mins out of 4,000 played.

If you think that constitues athletic ability you are beyond help.

[NlolRL]

Dear oh dear!!!!! Pal...…..the plank played 57 mins in 3 years. That means that in about 4,000 minutes the team played in 3 seasons he played a total of 57...…...yep 57 out of 4,000!!!!!!!

Because he was 6'11" he was used as a training partner for the women's team. Same reason he got a run with the mens team......as a training bollard to stand in the way and wave his hands around. Then when they were decimated by injury he got a few seconds here and there for a total of 57 mins out of 4,000 played.

If you think that constitues athletic ability you are beyond help.

He helped the womens team out because his brother had links with the team. He was spotted by the coach of the men's team as someone who was good enough to play with the team despite NO experience. That is astounding. This guy had zero bball experienced and played at an elite level after being spotted as talented.

This alone show his increadible aptitude for sport, I cant think of another person who has pulled of a similar feat.

[AFLcrap1]

Think it's time to post that pic of the Jap soldier coming out of the jungle .

[Terry]

Dear oh dear!!!!! Pal...…..the plank played 57 mins in 3 years. That means that in about 4,000 minutes the team played in 3 seasons he played a total of 57...…...yep 57 out of 4,000!!!!!!!

Because he was 6'11" he was used as a training partner for the women's team. Same reason he got a run with the mens team......as a training bollard to stand in the way and wave his hands around. Then when they were decimated by injury he got a few seconds here and there for a total of 57 mins out of 4,000 played.

If you think that constitues athletic ability you are beyond help.

He helped the womens team out because his brother had links with the team. He was spotted by the coach of the men's team as someone who was good enough to play with the team despite NO experience. That is astounding. This guy had zero bball experienced and played at an elite level after being spotted as talented.

This alone show his increadible aptitude for sport, I cant think of another person who has pulled of a similar feat.

What this shows is you have an incredible aptitude for total BS. If you truly believe this you are way beyond help pal and probably need to return to the jungle because you will decimated here by intelligent posters.

[NlolRL]

You acknowledge he never played basketball until he started college right? You acknowledge that to make a college basketball side in any capacity, let alone play games, with absolutely no experience would be nigh on impossible right?

How can you repeatedly overlook these factors.

If he was a lifelong bball player you'd have a point, but he wasnt. He made an increadibly high level based on his agility and hand-eye co-ordination only.

[AFLcrap1]

You acknowledge he never played basketball until he started college right? You acknowledge that to make a college basketball side in any capacity, let alone play games, with absolutely no experience would be nigh on impossible right?

How can you repeatedly overlook these factors.

If he was a lifelong bball player you'd have a point, but he wasnt. He made an increadibly high level based on his agility and hand-eye co-ordination only.

Yet when we apply the same to RL players making it in afl you lot screech ......marketing ...lol