{"id":222286,"date":"2025-10-18T08:31:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/222286\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T08:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:31:24","slug":"collingwood-cult-hero-mason-cox-not-offered-new-contract-for-2026-afl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/222286\/","title":{"rendered":"Collingwood cult hero Mason Cox not offered new contract for 2026 AFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Mason Cox, the first American to become a regular AFL player, has been delisted by Collingwood after 139 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The 34-year-old has confirmed he will not be with the Magpies in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">In a video on Instagram, Cox thanked the club and supporters, saying he was &#8220;pretty excited about what&#8217;s next&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The towering ruck-forward did not confirm if he intended to retire or try to extend his career at another club.<\/p>\n<p>Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;It&#8217;s crazy to think that you&#8217;d never heard of a sport \u2026 to then be a premiership player,&#8221; Cox said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;Collingwood supporters are the best supporters in the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Cox famously debuted on Anzac Day 2016, kicking the first goal of the game in front of 85,082 people at the MCG.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">A former college basketballer, Cox was signed by Collingwood as an international rookie in 2014 after impressing at two combines \u2014 one in Los Angeles, and the second in Australia.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radio\/programs\/abc-sport-daily\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that&#8217;s making headlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">After 20 games over his first two seasons on the Magpies&#8217; main list, Cox became a regular in 2018 as Collingwood shot back up the ladder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">In one of the most extraordinary preliminary final performances, Cox powered Collingwood into the 2018 premiership decider with a towering effort to help dethrone red-hot favourites Richmond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The Magpies went down to West Coast the following week in a thriller, but Cox became a premiership player five years later when Collingwood defeated the Brisbane Lions in an epic 2023 grand final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Cox became an Australian citizen in 2022 during a ceremony at the MCG.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Wearing goggles for his final few seasons due to a serious eye injury, Cox ends his time at the Magpies with 127 goals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mason Cox, the first American to become a regular AFL player, has been delisted by Collingwood after 139&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10990,3895,135109,24705,13126,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-222286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-collingwood","14":"tag-contract","15":"tag-delisted","16":"tag-magpies","17":"tag-mason-cox","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}