Mason Cox opens up on his crazy Grand Final week and what’s next for the Magpies
Half a world away from everything I am familiar with, there was a moment during finals I was overwhelmed by a sense of total isolation. Thankfully the one person I needed was not far away, writes Mason Cox.
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MCG, preliminary final, 94,959 screaming fans and 12:08 minutes left on the clock.
It had already been a wild night, but it was about to go to another level.
From inside our 50 I watched Brodie Grundy snatch the ball out of the ruck and boot it through for a goal. It was at that moment that I lost it.
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No one had given us a chance. No one thought it was even possible. Yet here we stood just minutes away from making it to a Grand Final.
And as the minutes and the seconds ticked down, I was about to enter the craziest week of my life.
THAT NIGHT AGAINST RICHMOND
To this day my fondest memory of that night against Richmond was nothing that happened between the sirens.
The part I remember the most was as everyone was celebrating outside the rooms, I decided to walk up the race to what was a dormant MCG.
I was standing in a 100,000-seat empty stadium. No one there, but maybe four or five security guards.
There is something so satisfying about an empty MCG.
I don’t know if it’s the vast emptiness that makes you feel so insignificant or the ability to hear your breath in a place where most people lose theirs.
But being out there all by myself gave me a second to reflect on the journey that had got me to that very moment.
All the long, gruelling off-season training sessions and days where I felt so isolated in a foreign country half a world away from my home.
As that feeling of loneliness fell over me an arm came around my shoulder. It was the one person whose opinion matters more than anyone else I will meet in my life — my mom.
Together, we called my brother and just sat there for 15 or so minutes in disbelief as to where my life had taken me. That is what I remember most.
SKIPPER’S MESSAGE: ‘EMBRACE IT’
It was a weird feeling going into Grand Final week.
My plan was to try and treat it like any other week. That was until some advice from the skipper changed my approach. Pendles told me that it didn’t matter how much we tried to make it seem like a normal week, it wasn’t. It was never going to be. ‘Embrace it’ was his message and he was right.
The media coverage surrounding the club in those seven days was astounding. The normal one-hour media session extended to two-and-half hours and there was absolutely nothing routine about it.
I enjoy doing media and it is something I strive to do post footy, but it was astonishing to me how much coverage the club was getting.
Back home, we love a big celebration when a team wins a championship. But having a parade through the city before the game was even played? Now that is a different way to do things.
From the screaming fans decked out in black and white along the streets of Melbourne to our training sessions full of supporters, I’m so glad I embraced every element of Grand Final week. It was something I definitely enjoyed being a part of.
‘IT WAS ALL A TWO-HOUR BLUR’
Looking back on the Grand Final, it is all a blur.
Throughout that week you spend so much time thinking about how things could play out and then, before you know it, the game is done in a flash.
Every player reacts to defeat in different ways. Immediately on the siren and for days after, I was inconsolable.
We barely missed experiencing the fairy tale ending every footballer dreams of.
However, when I think about it now, I’ve reached a point where I’m left with a deep sense of pride and gratitude to be part of such an amazing group of people I now consider family.
That comes from the remarkable accomplishments of my teammates.
What our group achieved was more than just a game of footy with hopes of a material outcome of a gold medal and cup.
It is the story of the resilience that happened throughout the season that will live on in my mind.
From Tyson Goldsack coming back from an ACL in five months to the tragedy the Varcoe family had to endure only weeks prior.
From the pressure that was on the group at the start of the season to watching my teammates struck down by serious injuries.
That resilience is what gives me confidence there is light at the end of the tunnel and this is only the beginning of something special.
WE WON’T STOP FIGHTING FOR OUR FAIRY TALE
In the off-season we all go our different ways but I know that each one of us was itching to get back to Melbourne to start the pre-season.
I’ve got no doubt in my mind there will be a lingering feeling of something missing from each one of us. The beauty of losing a Grand Final though, is that you will never feel more motivated to get back to work, to have the opportunity to make it back there again.
I am looking forward to that journey and trying to finish that fairy tale story one day.
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