Versatile tall Brennan Cox is set to build on an impressive 2020 season as a defender, according to senior coach Justin Longmuir.
After playing mostly as a forward between 2016 and 2019, Cox was a crucial contributor to Fremantle’s stingy defence in 2020 in what was a career-best season for the 22-year-old.
In an interview with Longmuir on Melbourne radio station 3AW, commentator Gerard Healy said Cox was in All Australian form in 2020 and asked Longmuir if Cox would be considered for another change of role to add to Freo’s forward depth.
“We have been looking at Brennan Cox and his ability to be a bit of a swing man for us,” Longmuir told 3AW.
“But at this stage of his career, having only played the one year down back, I’d be reluctant to move him again.
“It’s about providing enough flexibility and enough predictability, so they can settle and become really comfortable in that role. I’ll probably look to play ‘Coxy’ more back than forward at this stage.”
More from JL: The plan for more goals
Longmuir said that Cox’s ability to set up the play made him a crucial part of Fremantle’s backline.
“He did show some really good signs last year and it’s a really important part of the game in modern football…the ability of players to get off their man, read the ball and intercept and start the play up. I think he and Luke Ryan did that really well.”
Longmuir said the key for Fremantle to improve in 2021 would be in their ability to prevent opponents scoring multiple goals in quick succession.
“There’s a couple of focuses over pre-season. One is to execute the game plan for longer,” Longmuir said.
“For the first half of last year, there was a lot of times where we’d have 15 minutes of time in a game where we’d let four or five goals through to the keeper and that just killed us. It ended up being the difference in the game.
“We’ve (also) been working on our ball movement, in particular, our forward half.
“Hopefully, we can get a bit more bang for buck. I feel like we’re building a strong young midfield that can give us good supply, we just need to turn that into scoreboard pressure.
“We’ve done a lot of work on our ball movement.”
