Fremantle’s Mason Cox has jumped to the defence of his old Collingwood teammates, labelling the intense media scrutiny of the Magpies’ misfiring attack as “unfair” following their Round 1 loss to Adelaide.
Cox, who ended his 11-year tenure with the Pies in the offseason to join the Dockers, believes some of the criticism of Craig McRae’s current tall timber is premature and ignores a fundamental aspect of the club’s tactics and game plan.
The 14-point defeat to the Crows leaves the Magpies at 1-1, and the spotlight has turned harshly toward the new-look trio of Dan McStay, Tim Membrey, and Jack Buller, the three key talls managing just one goal between them on the weekend, and two for the season to date.
But it’s still early, and Cox insists the lack of individual statistical output could be a feature of the system, not necessarily a bad sign.
“Playing forward for the Collingwood Football Club can be a tough thing where the media is gonna crucify you because you don’t have the stats because you’re trying to play that team game,” Cox said on the Red Time podcast.
“Sometimes you have to give up the stats and play a role a bit more than probably get the plaudits and everything else. I think that’s happening.”
The Magpies moving on from veterans Cox and Brody Mihocek has been widely questioned. The club has not cleared the 100-point mark since Round 18 of last year, when they put 115 points on the Blues in a 56-point win at the MCG. They averaged over 94 points per game to that point of the season, but across their last 11 games, they have averaged a modest 71 points.
The American-born ruck-forward argued that while looking at the scoreboard can tell a story, it may not paint a full picture.
The Pies are 1-1 to start the season after a loss to the Crows. Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images
“It’s a small sample size, I will say that. They’re trying their ass off, but I think what happens is, Collingwood is a very defensive team and their mindset is very defensive and territory-based,” he said. “You look at other teams that are a bit more offensively minded, you have more stats, and people wouldn’t be talking about them as much.
“Also the fact that it’s Collingwood, you know, they lost over the weekend so you gotta find a headline and people are gonna go straight for that one. A little bit unfair I’ll say, but we’ll wait and see how it pans out and see if it’s a consistent theme for a longer period of time.”
While the focus remains on the big targets, the Magpies are also grappling with missing the spark of electric small forward Bobby Hill, who has remained away from the club since mid-2025 — playing just one game as sub in Round 22 — due to personal reasons.
Structurally, the team is also missing its pillars at the other end. Without Jeremy Howe and Darcy Moore, the Magpies have arguably been forced into a more conservative, ‘lockdown’ style of play to protect a depleted and undersized backline.
The Pies have a bye in Round 2 after playing in Opening Round, but all eyes will be on their forward mix when they host GWS at Marvel Stadium in Round 3.
