Cox did not travel with the team to Sydney to take on the Swans on Friday night.<\/p>\n
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Instead the defender, who has played just twice for Fremantle\u2019s alignment team Peel since 2019, will be part of the Thunder team to take on Claremont in Sunday\u2019s grand final.<\/p>\n
Peel coach Adam Read defended Cox\u2019s last-minute inclusion, with the Docker not playing since injuring his calf last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my mentors told me: Talent, you can lose with it but you can\u2019t win without it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone of Brennan\u2019s capabilities is available for us, we\u2019re more than happy to take it.<\/p>\n
The 2026 WAFL grand final captains and coach. Photo: WA FootballSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
Did Fremantle look too far ahead? | 01:41<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom his personal point of view, it\u2019s his opportunity to get himself ready for a potential AFL grand final if things go right and that\u2019s what the alignment (between Fremantle and Peel) is there to do to set both clubs up for success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read conceded Cox \u201chasn\u2019t suited up for us for a while\u201d, but was confident links to the club\u2019s training program would get him through Sunday\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur system is really adaptable. There\u2019s times we\u2019ve played three talls back, even four. The beauty is most of our players, whether they are local Peel players or AFL listed players, is we\u2019ve built a lot of versatility\u2026 there\u2019s no hesitations about bringing someone like Brennan in.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a premiership player at the Peel Thunder footy club. The footy club means something to him. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile he hasn\u2019t suited up for us for a while, he\u2019s got great connection to the club and people involved and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read said he was \u201cnot aware\u201d of any restricted minutes for Cox, who has managed just three AFL games since mid-July.<\/p>\n
Brennan Cox fails to finish the clash with Carlton.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Justin McInerney returns for the Swans | 03:12<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the beauties of the alignment and how strong it\u2019s been over the recent past, Brennan\u2019s got great connection to the footy club, the boys are really well connected \u2013 both groups. Even though he hasn\u2019t suited up, he does know a lot of the guys,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the backline that he\u2019ll be going into has a lot of listed guys that he trains with week in and week out anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be sharing that backline with guys like Ben Hancock (a former Fremantle COVID top up player and ex-Thunder captain) who he has played a lot of football with over his journey anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Thunder coach admits it would be a tough conversation with the player who misses out for Cox.<\/p>\n
Can Papley lead Sydney to a Grand Final? | 01:22<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve done every coaching course you can imagine \u2013 I don\u2019t think one of them teaches you how to have those hard conversations and talks about that,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, it\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad to do it two years ago, drop two guys for the 2024 grand final. It\u2019s not an easy conversation to have with someone, but that\u2019s the harsh realities of high-level competitive sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d love everyone to get out there and play but unfortunately that won\u2019t be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir praised Cox\u2019s mature approach to his own finals heartbreak; not travelling to Sydney for Friday night\u2019s preliminary final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always do those meetings one-on-one, so it\u2019s less confronting for the player,\u201d Longmuir said.<\/p>\n
Brennan Cox trains, trying to prove his fitness.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took it really maturely. He understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a player that takes a little bit of time to get his fitness back. He\u2019s a bit of a cramper, so he understood that going into a prelim would be a big challenge for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was disappointed, but he\u2019s such a mature person and a guy of great character, so he understood what\u2019s ahead of him, and he won\u2019t give up any hope of us winning and him playing next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like he\u2019s in a good spot. He couldn\u2019t have done much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just going into a prelim, in his position, it\u2019s a really tough ask, so he\u2019ll stay behind and play Sunday and, like I said to him yesterday, next week will be next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL star Brennan Cox will be parachuted into Sunday\u2019s WAFL grand final in the hopes he can prove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-895444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895444","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=895444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}