What you’re noting is his slow thinking, and lack of instinctive reactions.
Unfortunately, what I saw was just lethargic, pathetically inadequate effort. Believe me, you don’t want to see it. If you did, your opinion of him would not be positive.
When an opponent is running into the square to goal and you are the last remaining defender and you get a good chance to tackle, I just don’t see any redeeming aspect of a lack of committing anything to the tackle. I don’t care how skinny or fatigued you are.
You wouldn’t be happy to see that in the under 12s.
Going to go down eventually as the most disappointing top 10 selection in not just Essendon history but competition wide.
Looks disinterested, soft, meek and (for some reason) has only a minuscule amount left of the talent we saw in the first few games of his career.
Every game looks like an early February scratch match at Moorabbin.
Either it’s a horrible reflection on him or the terrible development system he has been involved in at his time at Essendon. Reckon it’s probably a bit of both.
He’s already well beyond that…
I still don’t know where this guy will play. He may take a few years to develop, or he may never develop. I’m not sure.
Classic essendon top 10 pick
It’s now hard to understand why we didn’t go Perkins, Bruhn, Reid.
We were ■■■■, so get the two best available mids and the best available KPP.
But we got sucked into the higher risk possibly higher reward player, just like we did with Francis who was a clear bust at that point in time.
Anyway, keep playing and trying to improve him because we either need him to become best 22 or increase his trade value this October.
I had Perkins, Reid, and Olly Henry as the three I wanted.
Though it seems Henry was always going to seek a trade to Geelong.
So there’s this thing called Google….
Please. Weideman is on our list.
He’s got a long way to go but still might make something of himself yet. There are others that will absolutely go down as a worse selection than Cox.
I was being overly dramatic as the worst ever.
Maybe most disappointing would be more accurate.
Hope he can turn it around … but signs aren’t great.
Well this sure seems a silly comment now
We drafted a kid, he played a great first season, he got injured. He hasn’t got back to that level.
If he’s not as good as when we recruited him I’d blame the clubs debt devt program not the kid.
He played better when he was on the wing.
We haven’t seen Cox on the wing this year.
I also gave Duursma a rave review after his St Kilda game, but there have been very slim pickings from his other outings.
Being theatrical is quite common in these parts.
And every other thread is complaining about our list balance being screwed because we have too many 6’ midfielders???
Conceptually it was fine. And in time will probably be fine, but losing so much development time to both Cox and Reid (given the loss of development time for that group to covid) definitely hurts. Especially when the injuries meant they couldn’t build size.
These guys were always long term projects. They need continuity. Cox is on game 15 in 2 and a quarter years. A week or two ago everyone was happy with his start to the year. He has a bad game on the weekend against a good opponent, when the rest of the team gets smashed and apparently he’s a bust. Sometimes this place just loses all perspective.
Tbh I’d prefer him up the ground, but am completely comfortable with us using him in defence for a while to build confidence and get some continuity. Long term I think he’s the ultimate utility who could play pretty much any position on the ground. That can be a great weapon to create mismatches and give us a real advantage. But that’s some time away.
I’m happy to ride it out with him in defence for the entirely that Ridley is out. He will make mistakes but we actually have to find out whether he’s any good in a settled position.
Agreed.
That said I still don’t think defence is the position that best suits him. But he needs some continuity, and seeing the game unfold in front of him is a good learning experience. But if the midfield is smashed he’s not the type who is going to be able to stem the tide when the floodgates are open. He needs the midfield to apply enough pressure that he has a chance!
Last week the Cox Lovers (Boom Tish). Were giving me ■■■■ as I said you would expect more from a top 10 pick and I thought his kicking was average. As I said last week I think he could turn into an ok player. He is devoid of all confidence, we just need to play him and keep backing him. I think he prefers half back, but I dont think he has the pace and kicking precision to be that effective. Would much prefer to put him on a wing and give Kelly the flick. On a wing he can use his endurance to push forward and back, could be a real threat.