Fremantle Dockers defender, Brennan Cox, joined Scott Cummings and Tim Gossage to preview and chat Western Derby LIX ahead of the anticipated clash on Saturday night.
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SEN WA Breakfast
"I got them blind and they signed it" - Brennan Cox (25/07/2024)
[Music] For now, Lockers Team song, we heard it on the weekend and we're likely to hear it again Saturday night. They are raging red hot favourites here in the Derby against West Coast. Thanks to Sonos, Mulkey Room, listening while it's home theatre and a whole lot more. Brendan Cox is our guest, Cox, we appreciate your time, good morning. Good morning, how are you? Yeah, going really well now. You dodged a bullet earlier in the year when you lost that shock Derby. You didn't play. Have you reminded your teammates that it wasn't your fault? [Laughs] No, I haven't. I don't want to bring it up to them because they're still a bit salty about it. That might be good. That might be a good thing, salty, because they get a chance to redeem themselves. Hey, mate, just first things first. You played the last three games, 18, 19, and 20, back in the line up after major surgery. You feel like every run you get better? Yeah, definitely. I think defensively, you know, I come back, you know, feeling a lot more comfortable. I think just with ball in hand is probably the thing that's probably needs to lift a bit, with obviously getting confidence back with, you know, testing the tackle and driving at the game is probably one thing that hasn't really come back yet, so that will be a real strong focus from here on him. Are you back six? Cox has been, has been superb for a couple of years now, but obviously with the skipper going out with his arm, and he'll miss probably the most of the home in a way season, but Josh Draper, who's more than capable of standing in and when he's playing out there, he holds his own beautifully. It just keeps you in good stead, doesn't it? Yeah, definitely. It's been great. He obviously got a lot of games under his belt, and yeah, you've seen that, especially at Sydney game, what he's able to do when he's really decisive and interrupted his game. He's really athletic, can play a total of small, but yeah, having him getting, you know, 15 or 30 games under his belt, he'll come straight back in and play that role, which he's done the whole year. Oh, the time he looked back on losses and, you know, you learn from them, might fire you up a bit, and it might only be the week before or the two weeks before, but this previous Derby would absolutely be the driving factor, and it sounds like the noise coming out of Freo is that won't happen again. Oh, yeah, it's not even an eagle thing, you know, like if it was any other team, you know, we'd be the exact same. You know, if we got smoked by anything, we'd want to come back and, you know, sort of get revenge on him. Yeah, he looks so much lower, colors like that, and gets smoked. So, yeah, we want to get him back, but, you know, we'll try to process, we're not going to do anything over the top or go out of anything we haven't done all year. So, yes, we are going to bring you our contest, and hopefully we can get it done on a weekend. Yeah, in the West Coast, we'll get back Waterman, of course, they're likely to get back Duggan, not Duggan, and McGovern as well, Joe returns. So, all of a sudden, they're starting to look a little bit ominous, aren't they? As a line-up. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, they've been brilliant for those two players, especially all year. You know, Waterman family crew back here in McGovern, we know how good he is. So, yeah, we're going to be taking them lightly, that's for sure, and, yeah, those two players. A lot of their team to probably have their best players. Frimond Lockers, defender Brennan Cox is with the thanks to Sonja. So, Coxy, can you give our listeners an overview of how serious your injury was, exactly what you did do, and how serious this major the surgery was? Yeah, I did a pretty good number on it. So, a few years ago, I did the one tendon, which I just snapped at. This year, I snapped two tendons down the honey, which they've never seen before. So, sort of wasn't sure how the return would be and what it was all going to look like. So, I was super happy with the surgery and everything, but, yeah, did a really good number on it. Still getting some strength numbers and getting back to speed with running and stuff, that started to progress each week. Yeah, well, I'm sure you're happy. Fingers crossed and touched with your surgeon. You obviously did a remarkable job. Yeah, yeah, Peter, I was trying to do a great job. Got the footage of it and everything. He does like the old footage, doesn't he? Coxy's already seen the footage, but his life works there. They have not seen the footage. No, he's too professional for that, I mean. Exactly right. Take me to get confidence in that, because they are horrible and, you know, 14-week hamstring is a shocker. Wow. Does it, do you have doubts in the back of your mind and how do you overcome those? I think early days when returning, so you're going through appeal and stuff. Even first, probably game at AFL. When you're sort of running, you've got a long run to a ground ball and some of it's up your clacker and you're probably thinking, "Oh, if I'm going to do it." This is the time. The ones you're like, "You've got to think quick and in the contest." You're not really, you know, it's not at the forefront of your mind. So I think as I start doing more and more of that, like last week, I didn't think about it at all pretty much. So I think you're starting to get there and having real confidence in it. Hey, you had a baby recently. You might ask fatherhood treating you. Yeah, he's been a really good vet. We've currently played training him over the weekend, which was pretty tough, but he's been good now. He's pulled the flight pretty quickly now, which is nice. Sorry, sorry, sorry. He's not like pre-season training or something. What's going on here, Coxy? What is this? We've got to hear that. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. We've pretty much given him the dummy to go to sleep, trying to get rid of that, and trying not to rock him. So you pretty much just go and put him down in the cup and then walk out. And then you can walk in and walk out that pretty much for the 15 minutes. They'll just like cry and scream their head off. But now you put him down in your fall asleep within two or three minutes. It's hard to do, but it's definitely worth it. It's hard to do. It's controlled crying. It's called crying. You let him go. And with your first one, you just want to make them happy all the time. You'll be right, mate. When you have your second, you won't care that much. The second one is, yeah, whatever, cry all you like. It was not a bad, not a bad towards it. A bad time or a good time to have a 14-week hammy during that period. No, it was a bit of a silver lining total. I got three weeks off at the start of the hammy. So, Kia, Kia, we're having five days after I did my hammy. But I just got three weeks at home with a halo, which is really nice. Although I still want to be playing, but it was a bit of a silver lining to it. I guess. Is it just another game? We had Hayden Bellant on and Adam Selwood on, and we go through this, please, don't we? Only retired players, so it's not another game. Scotty and I are just sitting here thinking, "How do we get excited about the Derby?" I mean, Fremantle are in a premiership window, West Coast, and we know we're there at the last Derby. Through up amazing result, and we've got to be careful of the damaged eagle, so to speak. That would Fremantle be looking out for, but Fremantle are playing great footy. But amongst yourselves, do you walk around going, "Oh, we're playing the Eagles. Let's get up for it." Or do you think, like you said earlier, it's just another four points and just another team. What's the public line for you? Well, the coaches and us players, you know, just trying to make another four-quarter performance and really trusting our process and doing the same prep every week. But I think, you know, deep down, you know, the cross-down rivals, you know, there's always a little bit of edge and spark in these games that, you know, we're just focusing on what we do in game day and in our game plan and just, yeah, going out there and trying to give a four-quarter performance. I do love these. I did a function last night, Scotty, with Jordy Clark, who's an absolute ripper. He wore a hat. He always wears a hat. Who's inside at night? Why is he wearing a hat? He's a hat man. As much as you and I wear shoes, he wears hats. That's his go. I did it with McGovern and Jackie Waterman as well. And they all actually admitted, "No, there's a little bit more to this." Because, you know, you do functions together, you do appearances together and that sort of thing. And there's nothing better than walking in knowing that you rolled them the last time. There's a bit more amongst the players, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, we don't want to lose to the cross-down rivals. And, you know, you got to hear about it for the next, you know, whole season. So, you know, we want to win this game. And obviously, with the latter being so tight as well, you know, it's a must-win for us. See if we want to stay in the top four or so. Yeah, it's a bit of a lot of riding on this game. Tell the kid to be quiet in the background if you can. Thanks, mate. You're starting to start. I sleep training is one thing, but a bit of discipline wouldn't go astray either. Obviously. I think they also need to use the other. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. You look that out and pretty quick. Now we're over that. Hey, just in regards to your expectation of the weekend and going forward. Are you getting excited about what could be about to transpire? And everyone's starting to talk about being a genuine contender. Do you in yourself believe you've got everything laid out in front of you now to make the next five weeks going into a finals campaign perfect? Yeah, definitely. We know what our footies have been enough to do. And we've put ourselves in a really good position here in the next five weeks. If we can continue to play our way in our footies, that will give ourselves the best chance of going into a grand final, making the finals and hopefully going to the grand final. But as I say, it would take a week, probably a week. But we're not getting ahead of ourselves just yet. Yeah, we just want to get that week hopefully against the Eagles. But yeah, that won't be an easy task. In the past, it's always been a cross football in general. It's always been play it down, play it down. They're still getting carried away. But the later times in our Cox here, it seems to be a lot more. Well, why not us? Why not us? Let's dare to dream. Is that the mentality at free mail at the moment? Yeah, yeah. 100%. You know, we've said straightaway, why kind of be up when the grand final? And we've put ourselves as a set in a really good position and showed that our footies good enough. You know, we beat the Sydney over in Sydney. So, you know, our footies, yeah, definitely good enough to do that. Brennan, last one for you before we let you go. Tom Barras said this on June 27. Tom Barras. I'm a West Coast Eagles player, and unless the rug gets pulled out from under my feet, I'll stay that way. So, Cox here, he's got three more years of a contract, and there's all this talk this morning that it's either Hawthorne or Western Bulldogs, and they're all over him with a long-term contract. So, Cox here, we're putting a running a tape over this, are we, right? Brennan Cox has got a contract till 2013, but your name keeps getting thrown up, 2030, sorry. You've got a contract till 2030, but your name gets thrown up as trade bait. Have you heard this? And can you declare that you've got a six-year contract underneath you and you're not going anywhere unless someone pulls a rug from underneath you? No, I don't think I've been using trade bait. Yeah, and I'm signed to the 2030, I think, or 2031, so I'm not going anywhere. Oh, I thought that too, mate. I thought that contract was created in trade bait to nasty, nasty words. That's a big contract. How did you do that, Brennan? It's impressive. That's some security. I got a blind, and then they shined it. [LAUGHTER] Well played. Nice work by you. Nice work by you. Hey, good on you, mate. I think you're a key part of what they're doing down there at Fremantle going for. That's why you're on that long-term contract. Big Derby going for you, mate. Look forward to seeing you. You measure up, and let's hope. Well, your last Glinden Yellen medalist was Locky Shultz, so he ain't there anymore, so you never know. I know someone who's voting on the medal, so we'll leave it at that. All right. Good on you, Coxy. Appreciate it. Great. Thanks, Josh. Hey, he's a good man there. He's got little aloe in the background as well. Brennan Cox. He puts it all in perspective. Don't know. He just said you measure that. Well, missing 40 makes it footy. Yeah. Hammy is a disaster. Yeah. That's a horrible time to go through, too. You've got so much rehab. It's boring. It's tough. It's hard. Yeah. You throw a little child in there straight away, and you actually know what life's all about, don't you? 100%. And no trade bait. There we go. No trade bait. I had to ask a question, mate. You might be told if he gets told in the next year or the next few months that he's a required player, then the rug's coming. The rug's coming. Yeah. Can I look you in the eye? You can look at me and you can answer this question, right? Answer this question. You get some think time to answer it. No one is talking to me. I'm trying to find out. I'm digging around, trying to find out who is voting on the Glindening Allen Medal. And I know they think they announce it prior to the game, but I don't know whether that's true or not. I don't know. And it's really difficult to do. Can you look me in the eye and I'm happy to go to a break if you want time to think about it. But I've heard and you will not give up the information. Are you voting on the Glindening Allen Medal? Are you voting? Can I have some think time, please? Let's go to a break. Let's go to a break. We'll take a break. All right! (upbeat music)