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Looking for the next Mason Cox, US AFL Combine underway

  • Tuesday, April 26 2016 @ 09:20 am ACST
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Three years ago it was Jason Holmes at the AFL’s US Combine that caught the eye of talent scouts at St Kilda and then subsequently locked him in at the National Draft Combine in Melbourne.
 
In 2014 Mason Cox made such an impact the AFL brought him to Melbourne early, where clubs made bids for his services. Collingwood won out and yesterday he made his memorable debut.
 
 

(Image Source Twitter @GriffinGil12)

 
2015 saw Carlton take Matt Korcheck (pictured left) after his performances at the AFL held their US combine in Florida.
 
In 2016 the AFL are back in the US to see which US athletes they can unearth and propel towards an alternate footballing career in Australian football. They are back in Los Angeles and will put athletes (largely scouted by John Givony from Draft Express) through the same testing that is done at the National Draft Combine in Australia. 
 
This year the athletes attending had a special treat. On Sunday night in Los Angeles they all gathered around the TV to watch the ANZAC day debut of Mason Cox. Certainly great motivation for a group that are all wondering what exactly Aussie rules is all about and is there really any chance this will lead to anything significant.  The testing will run through to Wednesday.
 
We would like to tell you who is attending this year. But it is a secret until after the combine. The National Draft Combine in Australia announces attendees months out, but apparently this information is too hot to handle. Although we have seen that there is at least one player (pictured right) there that is reportedly 213cm, 2cm taller than Mason Cox.
 
At any rate there will no doubt be a number of clubs looking for the next Holmes or Cox. Gold Coast indicated late last year that a ruckman out of the US was one of the types they were looking for. 
 
Day 1 has just wrapped up with testing including skin folds, agility drills, vertical leap, ruck work and handballing. Tomorrow is the 3k time trial and more competitive work.   Some results of the testing will come out over the next few days.

(Image source Twitter @rmpenfold)