Dean Cox will become the 45th coach of the Sydney Swans this week, the 383rd coach in AFL history, and the tallest. And he’ll be the first who is notionally upstaged in his home town by a dog.
The 203cm ex-ruckman hails from the tiny industrial port of Dampier on the northwest coast of Western Australia, which at the most recent census in 2021 had a population of 1275.
Dampier was named after Englishman William Dampier, who was the world’s most prominent explorer between Sir Francis Drake in the 16th century and Captain James Cook in the 18th century.
Captain Dampier, later to become the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, commanded a 26-gun warship ‘HMS Roebuck’ on a mission to explore the coast of New Holland, as Australia was originally known.
Although it was not settled until 1965, Dampier has become the major port of the Pilbara region, known for exporting iron ore, natural gas and salt.
Cox, born 1 August 1981 and a 290-game champion with West Coast from 2001-14, is among five famous West Australians from Dampier – and the only male.
The town also claims 1995 world athletics track bronze medallist Renee Poetschka, 2008 Olympic water polo bronze medallist Emma Knox, and BMX cyclist Tanya Bailey, a semi-finalist at the same 2008 Olympics.
And the fifth? It’s a kelpie/cattle dog cross named ‘Red Dog’ who travelled across WA in the 1970s to inspire the novel ‘Red Dog’ and a feature film that followed.
‘Red Dog’, who had several owners, became a beloved friend and mascot of the Pilbara community, and since his death in 1979, is remembered via a statue in the town centre.
So ‘famous’ was he that he was made a member of the Dampier Salts Sport and Social Club and the Transport Workers’ Union, and was adopted by the Bank of NSW in an advertising campaign which said ‘if Red banks at the Wales, then you can too’.
Dean Cox, was a naturally gifted sportsman in his youth and began his football journey in the North Pilbara Football League with the Dampier Sharks, who also claim Zac Langdon, a 2017 AFL draftee who played 56 games with GWS and West Coast from 2018-22.
Says Cox of his early years: "The best thing about Dampier was it was a small, country town and everyone knew everyone. You'd go to school, finish, then you'd just play sport – whatever it was. We played multiple sports in winter, then come summer you'd play the complete opposite and everything you could possibly do, you did with all your mates."
The giant ruckman was sent to East Perth by his uncle George Michalczyk, himself a prominent football person, leaving behind parents Norm and Mary and younger brother Jason as he moved 1500km south at 18.
Labelled ‘unco-ordinated’ in his early days in the city, he’s admitted that at the time he thought the AFL was an unrealistic objective, and he was just hoping to get a game with the Colts, and perhaps, ultimately, the WAFL side.
But after playing with the East Perth Colts in 1999 he was invited to do a pre-season with the Eagles. It was his first proper pre-season and a footballing baptism of fire, but it was it was the start of something very special.
Cox’s AFL journey began in the AFL Rookie Draft, held before Christmas 1999, after Collingwood pick #1 Josh Fraser headed the last intake of the 20th century.
It was a talent-laden draft, producing 27 players who reached 200-games – an extraordinary outcome in comparison to 13 in 1998 and 17 in 2000.
Cox was pick #28 in the rookie draft, after St Kilda’s Stephen Milne went at #23, Hawthorn’s Shane Tuck at #24 and Port Adelaide’s Dean Brogan at #26, and before West Coast picked up Cox’s 2005 grand final teammate Casey Green at #44.
It was the same rookie draft in which the Swans snapped up Tadhg Kennelly at #9 after the national draft had delivered them Scott Stevens at #21, father/son Stephen Doyle at #26 and Ryan O’Keefe at #56, plus ex-North 200-gamer Brett Allison.
But the boy from Dampier played more games than all but three of the 144 first-time draftees in his draft year – Fremantle pick #4 Matthew Pavlich (353 games), Geelong pick #47 Corey Enright (332 games) and Bulldogs pick #13 Robert Murphy (312).
The gangly big man started the 2000 season as East Perth’s fifth-choice ruckman in the WAFL, yet six months later he won the Simpson Medal as best afield in the WAFL grand final at 19 as his side beat East Fremantle by 39 points to claim their first flag in 22 years.
Cox made his AFL debut at 19 in Round 2, 2001 at Subiaco against Sydney, collecting 15 possessions and 15 hit-outs partnering Michael Gardiner in the ruck against the Swans pair of Greg Stafford and Stephen Doyle as the visitors, up 47 points at halftime, won by 15.
It was the start of a career that included 16 finals, two grand finals, the 2006 premiership, the 2008 Eagles best and fairest, nine top 10 best and fairest finishes and six All-Australian selections.
He was All-Australian in 2005, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’11 and ‘12 – a feat surpassed this century by only four players each with eight: Lance Franklin, Gary Ablett Jr, Patrick Dangerfield and Max Gawn. Chris Judd, Scott Pendlebury and Marcus Bontempelli also have six.
He won the Eagles best and fairest in 2008 after finishing 3rd-3rd-8th-8th from 2004-07 and, after an injury-disrupted 2009 season, went 4th-3rd-2nd-4th from 2010-13. Nine top 10 finishes in 10 years.
Cox was inducted into the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2019 and the AFL Hall of Fame in 2020 as the football community collectively noted that nobody had come from further back to secure such honours.
Single-handedly, as ex-Eagles coach Ken Judge noted, Cox revolutionised the role of the ruckman. He was like an extra midfielder around the ground, averaging 15.9 possessions and 0.58 goals across his entire career, and 17.7 possessions and 0.68 goals after his first four years.
In that period, which took in 212 games, he topped 20 possessions almost twice in every five games, and was a goal-kicker almost every second game. Big numbers for a big man.
Cox, whose 290 games in jumper #20 ranks fourth in the AFL behind Brisbane’s Simon Black (322) and North Melbourne 300-gamers Drew Petrie (316) and Wayne Schimmelbusch (306), had a 6-14 career record for the Eagles against the Swans. And he never won as a player at the SCG or the Swans’ former part-time homeground at Stadium Australia, going 0-3 at both venues.
But he was a pivotal figure in the special rivalry between the clubs, who met in the 2005 and 2006 grand finals, and from September 2005 to March 2007 played six games decided by a total of 13 points.
Having kicked the ball that led to Leo Barry’s famous mark in the closing seconds of the ’05 grand final, Cox reflected on one of football’s great moments. “Could I have kicked it a little bit differently? I don't know. But I'd hate to have got stuck with the ball there. I knew there wasn't long (to go), so I got it, wheeled onto my left boot and kicked it, then Leo did what Leo did.”
Having snared the AFL record for most hit-outs in his final season, Cox retired at 33 in 2014 to avoid the inevitable downward spiral in form, and went straight onto the Eagles coaching panel under Adam Simpson in 2015.
He was described by Simpson at the time as a legend of the game. "I've seen what he's done with the club … he's the heartbeat of this place. I think there's a long future there with his coaching.”
And so the next chapter begins.
Still ranked sixth all-time for career hit-outs, behind only Todd Goldstein (10,181), Aaron Sandilands (8,502), Max Gawn (7,401), Brodie Grundy (6,820) and Sam Jacobs (6,787), Cox will be 43 years 218 days old when he pilots the Swans into an Opening Round match against Hawthorn on Friday, March 7.
Of his 2025 coaching counterparts he’ll be younger than all but new West Coast coach Andrew McQualter (38) and Hawks counterpart Sam Mitchell (42), and more than 20 years younger than the League’s senior stateman, Brisbane premiership coach Chris Fagan (63).
Having served an eight-year apprenticeship under John Longmire, he’ll be younger on debut than seven of the current AFL coaches: Adem Yze, Luke Beveridge and Matthew Nicks were 44, Ken Hinkley was 46, Adam Kingsley 47, Craig McRae 50 and Fagan 55.
And he’ll be older than nine of them: Michael Voss and Brad Scott were 33 when they coached at AFL level for the first time, Chris Scott 34, Alastair Clarkson and Simon Goodwin 36, Damien Hardwick 37, Justin Longmuir 39, Mitchell 39 and Ross Lyon 40.
And he’ll be taller than them all. Much taller.
It will be all about football for the foreseeable future for the ever-affable ‘Coxy’, but regardless of wins and losses he insists his day job will never supersede his after-hours job at home, where he and wife Kerry are parents to daughters Charlotte and Isabella.
"You talk about the experience you get winning Grand Finals but being a dad is better than anything you can experience personally. It's unreal, it's challenging and forever changing, but you wouldn't change it for the world."
