He turned it down in 2019 didn’t he? So that’s 5 years without footy and has been doing the college footy stuff since 2020. Long time to be out of the game. He would have to play some VFL to find his game again before any club would consider picking him up.
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Lol mason Fletcher. Living overseas but can’t help but lick the boots of Jeff Kennett and other losers like Stephen Quarter main incessantly on twitter. Looks like unfortunately Dustin has had an influence on him. sad.
Corey McKernan is just as bad. He was doing great stuff for men’s mental health but has gone down the rabbit hole.
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Young Mason had fallen out of love with Aussie rules, and caught the American football bug.
“I got the feeling he just wasn’t enjoying his footy. You could see that he wasn’t enjoying it,” Dustin told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Sounds like the kind of person who is highly motivated to be an AFL footballer…
He’s coming from a long way back.
There is a reason why he wasn’t enjoying football. Being the son of a legend with a huge following means you have a different spotlight on you than other kids.
It becomes very tough to ‘enjoy’ football in that kind of spotlight.
Being in an AFL environment won’t make that any easier.
If he wants to come back, VFL is the best spot for him.
Then if he’s worthy, you give him a go. Even if it is as an SSP.
I suspect he’ll work in USA until he’s no longer employable. Then come back here and take up a specialist coaching role at Prokick. He’s also a chance to find himself on a coaching staff given the contacts he has through Dustin.
Not suggesting in any way that he should be playing AFL.
But. If an “elite athlete” who has spent the last 5 years in a near professional environment, and has the athletic profile and build to make it in the AFL was to turn up to our door as a Cat B prospect, we’d have a look at him, and if after testing and interviews etc we rated him a prospect then Cat B rookie is absolutely the right spot. Just because he’s Dustin’s son who have the game away should make no difference. It’s about whether he has any desire, and then if us, or anyone else, was willing to give him a go. VFL would make little sense given the rules.
I don’t think there’s any evidence that he’s vaguely interested though…
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he is the same draft as Zach Reid, so he’s about 9 afl games behind in development 
Best thing though is he’s had 4 years in the college system let his body grow and get over injury issues.
Looks like we missed the Irish blokes so a cat B list spot wouldn’t be hurting anyone.
Mason running around in the VFl would be no worse than Weideman in defence last year and good insurance for Hayes/Reid.
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Which was kind of my point.
If he is committed to the cause, by all means give it a shot. See how he goes against some of our VFL players and try it again in a months time and see if he improves at all across that period.
But I don’t think his mindset has changed since he left to play a different sport in another country. His actions will play a big part in whether he is worth giving another shot to, and he’s nowhere near it at the moment.
This situation is a long way removed from giving someone like Mark Blicavs a shot. Or even Oisin Mullin.
He is coming from a long way back. And at an age where he’d be expected to be up and running within a few years. A Mason Cox like career would be the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. Even getting an Israel Folau career would be a positive.
what happened with the irish blokes? did they even turn up? or did someone else get them?
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If you were going to give him a vfl shot you’d do it with the cat b spot because if he does come good it’s a free crack, where as if he goes to the vfl does alright then he would need to reenter the draft and would be fair game for anyone
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The odds of him ‘coming good’ from his current state is incredibly unlikely.
It’s a waste of time unless he actually shows something. Anything.
But hope all you like.
That’s all it is.
Blind hope.
It would be hope and the possibility of it happening are slim to none but why be negative
I would say higher odds than the Hird kid coming good after playing no afl at all
And he turned into a reliable VFL player.
I would have given him an AFL game just so could say had 4 generations etc and we were pretty average at the time.
All my positive energy is put into other things that are more likely to occur than this one.
We’re closer to a Premiership than any one of Fletcher’s sons deciding to want to play AFL footy.
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So anyway, when one of them Fletchers comes and plays for us… I’m thinking Centre Half Back.
A bloke who has spent years learning how to punt 70 metres should kick about 60+ goals a year from that position.
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Always knew he was a smart man!
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i love him even more
You blokes must be very fart smellers.
Ugh. Just made the mistake of browsing Mason’s tweeter pages thingies.
Fark me, he’s a wanker.
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They’ve all gone full MAGA. Is that what living in Cincinnati does to a person?
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I think it’s a reflection of American football. A more conservative bunch you won’t find except for stock car racing fraternities.