PORT Adelaide has withdrawn from the race to sign giant American ruck prospect Mason Cox.

The 211.4cm Cox — a former soccer player and basketballer — trialled with the Power on Saturday morning and was a guest of the club for its thrilling win against premier Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval.

But while Port has ruck problems following long-term knee injuries to lead ruckman Matthew Lobbe’s key sidekicks Jarrad Redden and Brent Renouf, it doesn’t view Cox as the answer — in the short term at least.

This leaves North Melbourne, Collingwood and Richmond — who are all believed to have offered Cox a contract as an international rookie — to fight for the 23-year-old’s services.

“We’ve decided not to offer Mason a contract for a couple of reasons,’’ Power list manager Jason Cripps told The Advertiser.

“We’ve obviously already got one international player in (Irishman) Daniel Flynn and we want to make sure we focus strongly on his development.

“And from a list management perspective we saw Mason as being a long-term project, having not played the game before and where he’s at with his development, rather than a short-term fix for our ruck stocks.’’

Cox arrived in Australia last week after being the standout prospect at the AFL’s US Combine in Los Angeles last month, which was attended by the Power and five rival clubs.

He trained with the Magpies and the Kangaroos prior to landing at Alberton and will meet with the Tigers before picking his preferred club, which he can officially join at the end of the season.

Slightly taller than the AFL’s tallest player, Fremantle star Aaron Sandilands, who is 211cm, Cox has impressed clubs with his speed, agility and clean hands.

The league’s national talent identification manager Kevin Sheehan said Cox had tested faster than the average AFL player while his vertical leap is “higher than anyone we have ever tested in Australia’’.

But most clubs believe the Oklahoma State University graduate is at least two years away from making an impact at AFL level because of his rawness.

Cox kicked up an Australian football for the first time last month and will have to learn how to cope with the physical buffeting AFL players cop.

“Mason’s a long-term project and is not someone we can count on to come in next year and have an impact,’’ Cripps said.

“We look to improve every year through our list management process and from the weekend with Renouf going down and Reddo (Jarrad Redden) out for the rest of the year we will continue to address that (ruck) area, along with our entire list.’’

Cripps however said Port would continue to attend the annual US Combine, which is funded by the AFL, because of the talented talls who are on offer.

“We will certainly continue to assess the talent pool over there because we think there are some talented athletes over there who could make the transition to the AFL, especially with the rucks,’’ he said.

Originally published as Power out of American Cox race