AFL's new international game-changer
Mason Cox is the newest success story in a bold experiment by the Australian Football League into America.
For years we’ve watched our best sporting talent head overseas and play by their rules.
But now, it’s Aussie Rules that is attracting some of the tallest and most talented basketballers America has to offer.
Mason stands at 6ft 11 – the tallest player ever in the AFL. But two years ago he hadn’t even heard of the game.
His first interaction with the ball, however, showed he was an upcoming star.
"Just thought, don't think about it, don't think about it too much.
"It was awesome, it's like the moment I'll never be able to describe really fully. There's no words I can really put into motion.
"It was just an amazing feeling having all the boys around me."
"I think one of my favourite sayings from basketball, one of our coaches said you can't teach height."
"This is an amazing opportunity I've been given in my life, and, um, not many people have, you know, the chance to do something like this, and, um, yeh, height has definitely been the main factor behind it.
A talented kid, Mason grew up to become a teenage star on the soccer field. Then at College, as one of the tallest students, he took up basketball and his team’s games were shown on national TV.
In early 2014, Mason was set to graduate and become an engineer just like his parents. But talent scout Jonathan Givony, who represents the AFL in America, contacted him.
Jonathan had seen Mason play basketball, but saw in him the potential for AFL instead.
Jonathan runs an AFL training camp each year in LA – where he invites young men who couldn’t reach their basketball dream to audition for the AFL.
"I called Mason right away, and you know, and he was open minded to it - once he had kind of gotten past the initial barrier of, this isn't a scam, he came around to it.
It took some time.
"It was pretty scary when I first saw it I was like what the heck is this like this is an actual sport," Mason said.
Despite his reservations, Mason went to the training camp. He didn’t know it, but he was about to become the prized recruit the AFL had been searching for.
"I thought maybe there would be one or two people taller than me but rocked up and I was yeah just taller than everyone else I was like alright "
"And then we put a football in his hands, and it was just, it was over from there, he was just a natural, he was kicking, it looked like he was doing it his entire life.
Mason was then invited to Australia and signed with Collingwood.
He spent two years learning the game before his big moment arrived on Anzac Day 2016.
Los Angeles-based AFL journalist and Fremantle Dockers fanatic Gil Griffin said he was instantly great, genetically speaking.
"They like the fact that he has a lot of mobility and athleticism."
"Throw those things together, and we're really talking about a player who can do things that maybe no other player in his position has done before.
Gil watched dozens of American hopefuls audition and has just written a book about the AFL’s experiment overseas.
"I think very simply its supply and demand. I think that now there's one particular position in footy called the Ruckman position, and it's the tallest player on the ground, and what that person's job is to do is to direct that ball to smaller team mates."
"You can't develop size, that is the big thing. You can't develop and you can't coach size. And if you look at our population having over three hundred million people and how many young men that size are involved in college basketball programs. There is an unlimited supply of people that could possibly learn the game if properly coached and if that player has the right attitude.
Mason has gone on to kick 17 goals in 11 games and is proving his exact philosophy.
"It's a cool experience you know, and I've worked pretty hard for the last year and a half just to be where I'm at now and to kind of start seeing some of the benefits is something I've enjoyed definitely."
