{"id":896738,"date":"2026-09-18T16:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896738\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:34:18","slug":"hardest-way-cox-rues-golden-grand-final-chance-as-swans-brave-run-ends-in-raw-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896738\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hardest way\u2019: Cox rues golden Grand Final chance as Swans\u2019 brave run ends in \u2018raw\u2019 heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

An \u201cextremely proud\u201d Dean Cox has rued his Sydney side\u2019s failure to capitalise on missed opportunities, with their season ending heartbreakingly at the hands of Fremantle<\/a> after the visitors\u2019 stunning final quarter.<\/p>\n

The Swans conceded the final six goals of their preliminary final against the Dockers, after at one stage leading by 28 points deep in the third quarter on their home turf.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series before the Grand Final LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

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It was a cruel way for the hosts\u2019 2026 to finish, in a season that can be swiftly cut into two halves \u2014 before Round 23, and after Round 23.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists post-game, the second-year Swans coach began his press conference with total praise for his club in the wake of five players being stood down for breaching club standards on August 17.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely proud, as I said to the staff and players after the game, to put on a performance like that,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the North (Round 24) and Brisbane (Qualifying Final wins). And then to go again, I\u2019m extremely proud of everyone uniting, galvanising and coming together to try and get our season to the last game. We fell short.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Freo\u2019s credit, they ramped up towards the back end of the third. They kick a goal after three-quarter time, and then (won) at the start of the last around the contest.<\/p>\n

Dean Cox looks on at quarter time of Friday night\u2019s Second Preliminary Final between the Sydney Swans and Fremantle Dockers at the SCG.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were in a really good position for three-and-a-half-quarters, and to their credit, at this time of year you can\u2019t give a team any momentum \u2014 and they took it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took their moments; that\u2019s what good teams do. To Freo\u2019s credit, they\u2019ve been the best team all year, and it showed that you have to play a full 120 minutes against those teams and to get the result you\u2019re after.<\/p>\n

Hall’s kids at it again after Swans goal | 00:21<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought our pressure on the ball carrier and the system that we played stood up, bar the last part. As a team, you\u2019ve got to put yourself into the positions to win it from those moments. You can talk about them as much as you possibly can throughout a week, and you play against a really good team, you learn the hardest way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice were the five players stood down for the season ahead of Sydney\u2019s Round 24 clash, which saw a number of fringe players at the club recalled on the brink of finals under unforeseeable circumstances.<\/p>\n

In their two matches prior to Friday night\u2019s loss, casual bystanders would have been none the wiser on the forced changes as younger types in Jesse Dattoli, Caiden Cleary and Angus Sheldrick shouldered new-found responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been really proud of the ability to play the players we have all the way through the year. The players that came in and played their first final a few weeks ago, when they were playing throughout the year, they acquitted themselves really well,\u201d Cox continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about giving them those experiences as much as we possibly can. They\u2019ll learn from them, they\u2019ll have a really good summer and we\u2019ll look to improve next year.<\/p>\n

‘They’ve completely flipped their style’ | 03:00<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the hardest part at the minute. To put yourself in a position where we were one kick down 20-plus minutes into the last quarter… your minds going to: \u2018What can we do to try and win? What moments do we have to take?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s raw, but that\u2019s footy. Footy\u2019s a hard game, and you\u2019ve got to be at your best for as long as you possibly can to get to the last game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he had learned personally from coaching his first-ever preliminary final, Cox responded: \u201cNow, I get a chance to really reflect on the season we\u2019ve had. We want to be playing these games of footy every year \u2014 that\u2019s what we strive for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about playing finals; it\u2019s about giving yourself every opportunity at the pointy end to play in these games. I love prelim finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain Callum Mills was the sixth player from the club\u2019s best 23 who was absent for the preliminary final blockbuster, after cruelly rupturing his ACL in the first quarter of their 53-point win against Brisbane a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

His injury, paired with a calf niggle to Harry Cunningham during training this week, made their opening three quarters on Friday night all the more impressive as the opposing Dockers operated extremely close to full-strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve (the players) been really supportive, and wanted to action everything that we wanted to put in place. That\u2019s been the great thing about when we come in every Monday … they\u2019ve just been really hungry to improve,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say it\u2019s a missed opportunity when you play a really good footy team … the older players, they certainly understand that they (preliminary finals) don\u2019t just come around every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re hard to get to, and I think that will settle in these next few days that: \u2018Yep, we missed an opportunity … but we should be really proud\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future of 36-year-old stand-in skipper Dane Rampe remains unclear, with the veteran one of just five Swans players out of contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An \u201cextremely proud\u201d Dean Cox has rued his Sydney side\u2019s failure to capitalise on missed opportunities, with their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-896738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896738","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=896738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}