West Coast ruckman Dean Cox wants to coach after he retires at the end of the season, but he’s unsure if the next step in his new career will enable him to remain with the Eagles.
The 32-year-old premiership ruckman announced his retirement on Monday, pulling the pin on a 14-year career which has seen him amass a club-record 286 games in the yellow and blue.
Cox retires from the AFL as the greatest ruckman of his generation, but the Western Australian native admits his coaching career will eventually force him away from the club.
“I still love the footy club and if a position is here, we will sit down and speak about that over the next 10 weeks or something,” Cox told 6PR radio in Perth.
“Certainly throughout my coaching career I will venture somewhere and find a different environment to learn. But I’m not sure if that’s next year.”
The 203cm six-time All-Australian has missed just three games this season but has remained an effective ruckman averaging 14.8 disposals and 23.9 hitouts per contest, down on the 22 and 26 he averaged during his prime between 2006-09.
“I’ve built a career where I thought I could have real impact in games, where I was at a level consistently doing that,” Cox said yesterday.
“It got to a stage this year where I thought it probably wavered away from that.”
Cox’s announcement leaves just Beau Waters as the last player on the Eagles list to have played in the 2006 premiership side after captain Darren Glass announced his retirement mid-year and Daniel Kerr walked away from AFL football at the end of last season.
The six-time All-Australian will fall eight games short of the 300-club milestone should he see out the remainder of West Coast’s schedule, unlikely to end in a finals appearance for the second straight season.
“If I was to continue next year, I was probably doing an injustice to myself on what I’ve established throughout my career.
“Milestones haven’t ever been a factor for me.”
Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
