Cox ready for the next step

Mitch Cox made the most of his VFL debut with the Casey Scorpions on the weekend. Picture: MORGAN HANCOCK

By JARROD POTTER

SHIFTING gears – if only for a weekend – has proved a boon to the football development of Dandenong Stingrays midfielder Mitch Cox.
When the opportunity came calling Cox, 18, from Berwick, was ready to make the step up and take on the VFL.
He was named Casey Scorpions’ 23rd man for its clash against Sandringham on Saturday and relished his first run around in the senior elite ranks as he lined up against the likes of AFL footballers Clinton Jones, Ahmed Saad and former Stingray Arryn Siposs.
While it wasn’t an outstanding result for the Scorpions – downed by 61 points against the VFL premiership contender – Cox savoured the high-calibre challenge.
“It was a pretty good day – obviously the conditions weren’t too great, bit windy and cold, but other than that it was a great experience,” Cox said.
“It was a bit of a shock at first – with the last month I’ve hit some good form heading into finals – but I wasn’t expecting a call from Casey to come down and play.”
Casey had Cox out on the wing, battling the bigger bodies as he learned what it took to become a VFL footballer in his short one-match apprenticeship.
“Adapting to the bigger bodies is the big thing,” Cox said. “In the VFL you need to give that little bit more effort as they’ve got the bigger bodies, rather than the TAC Cup you can get away with not as much strength because it’s so quick.”
Cox has filled his football resume this year – TAC Cup vice-captaincy, Vic Country representative and now a VFL debut – but those individual accolades don’t matter as much as taking the Stingrays to a premiership – a feat never before achieved by Dandenong.
“I’ve so far achieved what I want to achieve – play for Vic Country and we can hopefully go deep in the finals and that’s a big goal for me,” Cox said.
“For me and the leadership team down at the Stingrays – it hasn’t happened before, anyone winning a flag down there, that would be great.
“I just hope we go deep in the finals, get into the grand final and run away with the first ever Stingrays team to win it.
“Everyone down there is team-first, everyone down there knows what we want to achieve and that’s going deep into finals and winning it – we want to be the first team to win it.
“No-one cares about the draft down there – we play as a team, you play for your mates and play to win and that’s a big rule down at Stingrays.”
Dandenong coach Craig Black said it was the right time for Cox to head up to the big league and will benefit from the rigours that level demanded.
“We thought it was a good opportunity for him and it was the right time for us as we’d already made the finals and we’d secured second spot,” Black said.
“The opportunity had come and we knew it would be a good experience for him.
“We looked at it when Ricey (Bailey Rice) and (Jake) Lovett came back – the next couple of weeks they’ve been in great form.”
Cox will return to the Stingrays ranks this weekend when Dandenong battles Murray on Sunday afternoon in a TAC Cup final.