Premiership star Cossom reaches 200 games

By Chris Pike

 

Subiaco's star premiership wingman Chad Cossom reaches a rare feat in modern day WAFL football when he plays his 200th match this Saturday and it's an achievement that highlights his quality that has now lasted more than a decade.

 

Cossom made his debut in 2000 under Kevan Sparks having come through the colts and found his niche as one of the hardest running and most dynamic wingmen in the competition in 2003 when Peter German arrived at the Lions as coach.

 

He has been out on the wing ever since tearing up opposition sides with his trademark runs of several bounces that often end in one of his 138 career goals.

 

That has been a highlight of Subiaco matches for much of the last decade and the 28-year-old has been a key contributor to the club's most successful era.

The Lions had not won a premiership since 1988 when German took over as coach in 2003 and after losing the grand final that year to West Perth, success came in 2004 and 06 and then Scott Watters guided them to the club's first ever premiership hat-trick with wins in 2007 and 08.

 

Cossom was one of six players to feature in all four flags along with Luke Newick, Darren Rumble, Marc Webb, Allistair Pickett and Mark Haynes.

 

Reaching the double ton this Saturday against Peel at Bendigo Bank Stadium is something he's tremendously proud of, especially with him also juggling further law studies, working at the Law Society of WA and helping out at Hale School on non-training nights.

 

"When you start playing footy you don’t think about milestones or anything like that, you just want to keep playing for as long as you can and I've been able to do that. It is something special and it's a good achievement to make, and I'm proud to have made it," Cossom said.

 

"The commitment you have to make to play puts a lot of pressures in other aspects of your life and it is rare to get to 200 games, that's why I'm proud to have got this far. It is good luck more than anything.

 

"I haven’t had any major injuries and have only had a couple of months out over my career. It's a credit to Alby (Hawkins) and the medical staff at Subi who have managed me really well and they look after us."

 

As much as being a 200-game player, the 11th to reach the mark at Subiaco, is an honour, the four premierships are without doubt the highlight of Cossom's career.

 

"I feel very blessed and lucky to have played in that golden era. When I started my career with us losing all those finals I never would have thought that I would have even played in one premiership, but to play in four I'm extremely honoured about," Cossom said.

 

"The premierships are why you play football, why you do a pre-season and there has to be some reward for six o'clock swims in mid-week during pre-season. I look at guys who never won a premiership and consider myself very blessed to have played in four."

 

Subiaco has played finals every year of Cossom's career, but it took the added hardness of German as coach and Richard Maloney as captain to help turn the tide to turn them into the most dominant side of the past decade.

 

"It's hard to describe what changed, but it seemed like throughout the season we would be first or second and then come finals time we seemed to melt as soon as the pressure came on. Everyone used to talk us up as being easy beats in the finals, which was fair enough," Cossom said.

 

"The culture changed when Germo came in and we got used to winning. That certainly showed with the four premierships we won over that five-year period. Having lost the year before to West Perth gave us the knowledge of what we needed to do to win on the big day.

 

"We looked at the Brisbane side in the AFL and realised their strength was performing on the big stage and we wanted to emulate that in the WAFL. We developed that mental strength and Germo instilled that in us and it's so important in finals to be hard at the ball and it goes a long way to winning the high-pressured games."

 

The wing has been one of Subiaco's strengths to go with the outstanding ball winners in the middle as they benefited from the defenders providing good run and then delivered well to key forwards Brad Smith, David Mapleston, Lachlan Oakley and Blake Broadhurst.

 

Cossom first played on the wing in the reserves before becoming a league regular and after starting out as a tagger, he settled on the wing and has been one of the stars in the position along with Dane Carmody, Paul Vines, Shaun Hildebrandt and Jarrod Schofield ever since.

 

"In the colts I always played in the middle and in the reserves Peter Ashworth and Billy (Monaghan) played me on the wing and I got to the league team and Sparksy started me off in the middle as a tagger. I had to tag guys like (Shane) Beros and all these gun midfielders and that taught me a lot about accountability and then Germo came and saw me as a wingman," Cossom said.

 

"I told him I liked it out there and he put me there and I've pretty much stayed there ever since. We have had a lot of good wingmen. We also had Paul Vines, who was amazing, and was pretty much like Hildo how he'd run all day and get plenty of the ball. It really is our strength the running game and we try to provide that on the wing."

 

Ruckman Newick also used to position himself on the wing and get on the end of the ball from the back-line to set up many a Lions' foray forward in a role that made him the best ruckman in the competition, and helped Subiaco to be the best team even if it ate into Cossom's space at times.

 

"He never minded sharing my space out there, but that was good actually because it was a strength to Newy's game," Cossom said.

 

"For him to be able to do that as a ruckman was so important to our team and there's no doubt it made us better. I don’t mind as long as he kicks it nice and long or gives off a couple to me."

 

Cossom also got to tick off another career goal in 2006 when he played for WA against Queensland on the Gold Coast, and he treasures that experience right up there with the grand finals.

 

"I always wanted to play state football and I've always loved WA so to play in the gold and black was good. It was such a good year with 10 or so Subi blokes and it was a great experience on the Gold Coast."

COSSOM'S REFLECTIONS 

Favourite teammate:

At the moment my favourite teammate is Hilda. He is such a hard running wingman and I try to play like him and it's good to play with him. 'Des' Haynes was another one. He was fantastic and one of the best teammates you will ever have, and was so hard at it and such an important player for us. Before that, I used to live with Dane Carmody and he was a good mate of mine, and was almost like a big brother. Before that when I first started I remember blokes like Reggie Hampson and some of the older blokes really took me under their wing at the club. Peter Bird was another one that was great back when I started too showing me the ropes.

Toughest opponent:

I remember playing on Clinton Jones in 2005 or 06 and he got about 40 possessions on me. I did play on him quite a lot back then and he was one of the hardest players I've ever played on. He would run so hard and fast for so long, and was tough to keep under control.

Biggest influence:

Sparksy saw something in me when I was in the colts and gave me a league game early on and he helped to develop me as a player and then I have the utmost respect for Peter German and what he did. Especially for me as a player he taught me what I had to do to improve my game and I have nothing but respect for him. He has been the biggest influence on my career and I don’t think I would have got this far if I hadn’t been coached by him.