Iron Eagle

Description

In the tough, adrenaline-fueled world of Australian Football, Dean Cox is a legend. In 2014, the big man from the Dampier Archipelago played his 15th season of AFL, having played more games for the West Coast Eagles than any other man. To fans, Coxy was - and always will be - the Iron Eagle. Iron Eagle is Dean Cox's incredible and inspiring autobiography - a no-holds-barred chronicle of a wild childhood in the Pilbara that evolved into a glorious career in the AFL and placed him front-and-centre in one of Australian sport's most amazing rise-and-fall stories. Tough, loyal, relentless and gifted, the two-metre-tall, seemingly indestructible Eagles ruckman rose from his humble beginnings to fuel the fast and unlikely rise of Western Australia's first team in the AFL and became a lynch-pin in the Eagle's famous 2006 premiership, a one-point win over Sydney. With unflinching honesty, Cox's autobiography Iron Eagle takes us inside West Coast's glory years - the big games, magic moments and epic battles, including the thrilling clashes with Sydney where just 13 points separated the sides over six amazing games - and also lifts the lid on the off-field scandals that left the Eagles and their fans stranded in a dirty world of drugs, death and heartbreak. Bullishly upfront and admirably candid, full of up-close revelations and earthy humour and tall-but-true tales, Dean Cox's Iron Eagle is the uplifting tale of a bush kid with a gift, an Eagle who dared to dream, and a big man who flew into the record books and became an AFL legend.

Author description

Dean Cox is a naturally gifted sportsman who grew up in the iron-ore town of Dampier in the famous Pilbara region of Western Australia. He played for the Dampier Sharks and East Perth clubs before being drafted by the West Coast Eagles in 2001. Cox's 204cm and 107kg frame made him one of the biggest men and pre-eminent ruckmen in the AFL and he soon made his presence felt, leading the Eagles to a grand final in 2005 and claiming the premiership flag in 2006. He won the club's best and fairest award in 2008 and, in 2014, broke the club record for most games played. He married Kerry Lavell in December 2011 and they welcomed a daughter, Charlotte Ivy in December 2012. Cox co-owns a seafood restaurant, Beluga, in Claremont with teammate Andrew Embley.