Mason Cox “embarrassed himself” with his antics in the leadup to Collingwood’s eventual loss to the GWS Giants and failure to influence the contest, according to Kane Cornes.
As the Pies got their premiership defence underway and GWS looked to make amends for a one-point Preliminary Final loss, both sides traded barbs in the leadup to Saturday night’s contest.
Cox was a key part of that. The 32-year-old called the Giants’ homeground a “showground for livestock” late last year, with GWS CEO Dave Matthews firing back at that retort on multiple occasions.
When Opening Round and Saturday night rolled around, there was clearly no love lost. GWS had set up a petting zoo with a photo of Cox outside the stadium, while the Collingwood ruckman invaded the home side’s pre-match drills and gathered a hit out of his own.
Cornes gave his thoughts on AFL Media’s The Round So Far.
“If you’re going to talk a big game and act like a clown, we don’t mind it, provided you play well,” he said of Cox.
“He didn’t touch the footy for the first half of the game, Mason Cox… he was a liability tonight.
“So if you’re going to say that it’s a showground in the off-season, if you’re going to do that with (GWS ruck coach Shane) Mumford pre-game, you want to play better than you did tonight.
“So I think he’s a bit of a laughing stock tonight. He’ll look back and say, ‘I’ve got the premiership medal’, but I just thought he embarrassed himself in the leadup to this game and with his performance on the night.”
In Collingwood’s 11.16 (82) – 18.6 (114) loss, Cox had five disposals, 19 hitouts and a mark.
When these two sides last met, Cox had nine touches, four marks, three tackles and kicked a goal.
But he wasn’t the only problem for the reigning premiers, Cornes believes, who suggested Collingwood were simply off defensively.
Their 114 points conceded is the third most under Craig McRae, with only the Brisbane Lions kicking more than that against Collingwood last year.
“I just thought Collingwood were off defensively… time and time again, GWS went inside 50, Collingwood sagged off, paid them no respect and the Giants made them pay,” Cornes added.
Craig McRae cited a lack of physicality from Collingwood that allowed Callum Brown (five goals) and Jesse Hogan (four) to both have big impacts.
“Were we undersized? Maybe, I'm not sure. But if you watch every one of those marking contests, which I have, there's not enough physicality in what I'm seeing. That's on us,” McRae said
“Hogan's a very good mark in the air if you give him a chance to run and jump at it, so we have got to get to work.
“Charlie (Dean) showed some signs, I think it was promising, we'll look at the tape and look for opportunities for him to grow. But collectively, our backs, we didn't connect the way we would like.”