Latest news with #NikCox
News.com.au
08-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Defender Zach Reid sent for surgery as injuries hit Essendon, Sydney hard
Essendon opted for season-ending surgery to repair luckless defender Zach Reid's troublesome hamstring to give him the best chance of a 'full recovery'. The Bombers have been hit harder than most teams by injury in 2025 and have also sent midfielder Jye Caldwell under the knife to repair his syndesmosis injury. Reid got Essendon fans excited this season after stringing together 10 games, having played just eight since being drafted in 2020 amid countless injury issues, and he was given a three-year contract extension. But after experiencing some hamstring awareness towards the end of last Wednesday's main training session, follow-up scans confirmed a minor strain. After consulting specialists, surgery was deemed the best option, ending Reid's season. Essendon football boss Daniel McPherson is disappointed about the latest setback for Reid but confident in what the future holds for him. 'It's a tough blow for 'Reidy' to be ruled out for the year. However, we believe the surgical option offers him the best chance for a full recovery,' McPherson said. 'He's demonstrated exactly why he's so highly rated during the first 11 games this season. He remains a key part of our future.' Caldwell suffered his syndesmosis injury late in the fourth term of Saturday's loss to the Gold Coast Suns when his ankle was caught beneath him in a tackle. He will have surgery in the coming days with a return-to-play timeline yet to be determined. Youngster Nik Cox was also ordered by the AFL's concussion panel to stand down for the rest of 2025 as part of a return to play program. Meanwhile, Sydney's hopes of making a run to the finals have been hit hard, losing key forward Joel Amartey for 8-12 weeks with a high-grade adductor strain and Tom Papley will miss 2-3 weeks with a hamstring injury. Both injuries were sustained in Sunday's win over Fremantle that pushed last year's grand finalists to 10th on the ladder with a 7-9 record.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Injuries end season for Bomber, No.1 draft pick
Richmond's No.1 draft pick Sam Lalor might need surgery and Nik Cox's concussion history has also ended his AFL season. Lalor re-injured his left hamstring only a couple of minutes into his return on Saturday against Geelong, with the Tigers confirming on Monday his season is over. The AFL's concussion panel, which last month recommended West Coast defender Jeremy McGovern should retire on medical grounds, gave Cox hope he will resume his playing career. While Cox will not play this year due to his concussion problems, the panel gave him a pathway to make an AFL comeback after meeting him last month. Lalor has succumbed to a left hamstring injury for the third time, previously injuring it before he was drafted last year and then in the May Dreamtime at the 'G match against Essendon. The Tigers were cautious, holding him back for a week, but he limped off GMHBA Stadium after tackling Tom Atkins early in the first quarter. "We are all devastated for the young man, and I am sure our fans are too," Richmond high-performance manager Ben Serpell said. "The injury mechanism here for Sam this time was very different to his original injury mechanism. "He sustained the injury in a tackle. I think anyone who throws their body at the game as he did, and credit to him for doing that, is going to put their body at some risk irrespective of their injury history." Given Lalor's terrible injury history, he might undergo surgery on the hamstring. "We are a bit concerned about the integrity of the hamstring structure," Serpell said. "As part of that we will consult a few surgeons over the next little while to see if there is some surgical intervention available for us." Meanwhile, Cox is upbeat about his future after being told by the concussion panel he can resume his AFL career. "While I'm disappointed that I won't return to the field for the remainder of the 2025 season, this time away from the game will be used to focus fully on my health, recovery, and building the strongest possible foundation heading into pre-season," Cox said. "I've learned a lot about myself over the past few months, and I'm more motivated than ever to get back to doing what I love. "My focus now is on continuing to work closely with specialists and the club to make sure I'm in the best place physically and mentally to return to football."
News.com.au
07-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Essendon's Nik Cox says he'll get back to the AFL after concussion panel ordered he sit out 2025
Essendon young gun Nik Cox says he's 'more motivated than ever' to get back to AFL football after the league's concussion panel gave him the all clear to continue playing, but only after taking the rest of 2025 off. Cox, 22, hasn't played a game in 2025 as he continued to deal with the effects of concussion and fronted the AFL panel which has this year ordered the medical retirement of West Coast premiership veteran Jeremy McGovern. But panel has provided 'a clear return-to-play pathway' for Cox, after stepping away from football completely for the remainder of the year. Despite being forced to the sidelines, Cox said he would be back. 'After meeting with an independent AFL medical panel regarding my concussion history, I'm pleased that I've been cleared to continue my playing career,' he said 'While I'm disappointed that I won't return to the field for the remainder of the 2025 season, this time away from the game will be used to focus fully on my health, recovery, and building the strongest possible foundation heading into pre-season. 'I'm incredibly grateful to my club, teammates, medical staff, and everyone who has supported me through what's been a challenging and uncertain period. I've learned a lot about myself over the past few months, and I'm more motivated than ever to get back to doing what I love. 'My focus now is on continuing to work closely with specialists and the club to make sure I'm in the best place physically and mentally to return to football.' Essendon football boss, Daniel McPherson, said the Bombers were 'fully committed to helping him recover both physically and mentally'. 'After meeting with the panel in June, the recommendation for Nik to step away from footy for the remainder of this year was one that we accepted with the view to giving him the best chance of getting back to his best when he returns, both on and off-field,' he said. 'Nik will have our full support as we navigate with him the next steps in his recovery.'
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
AFL medical panel set to determine future of Essendon's Nik Cox
Essendon is awaiting a written report from the AFL's concussion panel before making a call on the future of Nik Cox as coach Brad Scott awaits a potential return of troops to avoid another fade-out in the second half of the season that he conceded had become a 'trend'. Cox, 22, could be forced into AFL retirement after just 53 games as he continues to battle concussion issues, with Scott confirming Cox is not slated for a playing return 'in the short term'. The former top-10 draft pick hasn't played in the AFL this season and recently went before the league's concussion panel, which can determine whether he should play on. Collingwood premiership winner Nathan Murphy was the most recent player to be medically retired last year by the panel, which initially cleared him. Scott said the Bombers were waiting on the full findings before making a call on Cox. 'He's gone before the concussion panel. They have given some preliminary findings, but we are waiting on a written report,' he said. 'We don't have direct recommendations yet as to what that looks like. It's fair to say he won't be playing in the short term.' Cox is on a lengthy Essendon injury list that has prompted the Bombers to play 11 debutants so far in 2025. The last team to field 11 first-gamers in a single season was North Melbourne in 2017 when Scott was in charge. It's still two players short of the modern day record of 13 among non-expansion teams, a number set by the now-defunct Fitzroy who played 13 debutants in 1991. While Scott couldn't rule out more first-gamers amid the injury crisis, he also hoped for the return of plenty of injured players sooner rather than later, conscious there are fears of a serious fade-out from the Bombers. In 2024 Essendon lost nine of the final 12 games, having won eight of the first 11, to drop out of finals contention in alarming fashion. In 2023, the Bombers lost five of the last seven games, including the final two matches of the season by a combined 196 points. It's a trend Scott is keen to avoid, and hopeful the competitiveness of his young players, outside last week's 92-point loss to Geelong, was evidence that shouldn't happen again. 'This is a bit of the thing with trends, there are things you can't deny. You can't turn around and say we haven't had poor second halves of the year in the past two years,' he said. 'But the thing you have to dig down on is the reason. 'At the moment we've also got to be careful with that because we hopefully will get some personnel, not all of our personnel, back in the back half of the year, that that's the panacea.' But Scott said young players being thrown into the big time earlier could provide capacity for quicker than expected improvement. 'You've just got to keep coaching,' he said. 'While we would have loved to have won our last three games, you have a more captive playing group when you get taught a lesson … they want answers, they want to improve, we can give them clear lessons on that. 'Sometimes young players can, not consciously, but subconsciously drift through the first couple of years of their career because they're seen as developing players. 'Our developing players are playing key roles in our senior team against stars of the competition. They haven't shown any signs of being overawed by that. 'We'll learn the lessons and try and turn it around.'
ABC News
11-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Reid's arrival can supercharge Bomber rebuild … what we learned from round nine
Zach Reid continues to announce himself as one of the best young defenders in the AFL, a fascinating ruck battle leaves questions for St Kilda, and Collingwood proves why its system is the best in the competition. Here's what we learned from round nine of the AFL season. Any discussions around drafts are usually a touchy subject for Essendon fans due to the staggering number of misses over the past two decades. One class in particular, that of 2020, is a polarising topic. The Bombers had three top 10 picks in that draft and walked away with three players — Nik Cox, Archie Perkins and Zach Reid. While other players from that class, namely Riley Thilthorpe (pick 2), Max Holmes (pick 20) and Errol Gulden (pick 32) have kicked on and become stars of the competition, the Bombers have been waiting for their trio to hit their straps. Cox started the brightest and Perkins has played the most games of the trio, but many around the club have long believed Reid, who has played the least, will end up being the best player. It has been a hard graft for Reid, whose career has been halted by multiple injuries, but he is finally putting together some football and quickly showing why Essendon has been willing to play the long game with him. Reid has played eight straight games to start this season, incredibly the longest stretch of games in his four-year career to date. Saturday's 27-disposal, 14-mark effort against the Swans was by far the best of the lot. The Bombers stopped in their tracks for the second straight week after a bright first half, and as the Swans pushed in the final quarter, Reid stood up tall. Reid took five intercept marks throughout the contest, all with varying degrees of difficulty. There were the easy ones where he gobbled up haphazard kicks inside 50 from Sydney, tougher ones where he withstood heavy contact to take a big pack mark. But one stood out in which he ran back with the flight of the ball to take it over his shoulder. It was so special that the master of running back with the flight of the ball — Brisbane great Jonathan Brown — stopped commentating the live action as it happened on Fox Footy so he could talk about the mark itself. Reid looked like someone who hadn't played AFL football in a long time in his first two matches this season, but in the weeks that have followed, not only is he getting acclimatised to the pace of the game, but he is growing more confidence in his body with every crunching hit he withstands in a marking contest. Reid isn't just an intercept threat either. He racked up 451 metres against the Swans, mostly using incisive kicks out of Essendon's back 50. In a side that is largely devoid of elite ball users by foot, he sticks out like a sore thumb. There has been great debate over what exactly constitutes a pass mark for the Bombers this season, Brad Scott's third in charge. Getting 20 or more games into Reid will go a long way to making it a positive season. Essendon is still ages away, but players like Reid can shorten the timeline in a hurry, particularly when paired with an equally exciting tall at the other end of the ground in Nate Caddy. All the great sides have strong spines, and the Bombers are building theirs with Caddy and Reid as the bookends. Friday night's clash between St Kilda and Carlton was dubbed by some as the TDK Cup due to the two clubs' bidding war over Blues ruckman Tom De Koning. De Koning is out of contract with the Blues at the end of the year, and the Saints have reportedly handed him the football equivalent of a blank cheque to pledge his future to Moorabbin. Carlton wants him to stay, but is well aware he could walk, given the Blues have their own cap constraints. There is only one problem, the Saints already have a really good ruckman in Rowan Marshall, who is signed through the end of the 2027 season. De Koning is four years younger than Marshall and is an upgrade, he is arguably the best ruckman in the competition in the non-Max Gawn division, but the duel between the two men begged the question as to whether the Saints really needed an upgrade in the ruck stocks. The Saints are quite clearly big game hunting, and have been for the best part of 12 months. They attempted to turn Essendon skipper Zach Merrett's head with an offer so big that Merrett, the most loyal of players, needed to sit down with his partner to talk about it. They chased Finn Callaghan, who said no and signed a monster deal to stay with the Giants himself. De Koning is seemingly the next cab off the rank. If De Koning says yes to the Saints, he'll walk in as the club's highest-paid player. A look at the ruckmen in recent premiership sides, sans Gawn with Melbourne in 2021, suggests blowing large portions of your salary cap on rucks isn't really all that wise. Collingwood realised this barely 12 months after giving Brodie Grundy, an excellent two-time All-Australian big man, a monster seven-year, $7 million deal. They flipped Grundy to use the cap space elsewhere, filled the ruck spot with Darcy Cameron, a less sexy ruck option, and won a premiership 12 months later. It was interesting to watch Marshall play with an extra layer of meanness than usual against De Koning. Every contest between the two had an air of "good luck taking my job" about it from the Saints ruckman. De Koning had the better game, but Marshall wasn't too far behind at all, and the game was a microcosm of where the two ruckmen's careers currently stand. The Saints have a big contract call pending with Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera as well, who is also out of contract and wants to be remunerated in a way that reflects his status as one of the best players on the team. Is it worth pricing yourself out of the Wanganeen-Milera business because you finally got a big fish to say yes? That's the question Saints bosses must ask themselves. A sensational first couple of months has Collingwood deservedly sitting among the league's premiership favourites, but Thursday's win over Fremantle in Perth might have been the biggest statement yet. How many other clubs would boldly decide to go to Perth, still the most daunting road trip in the AFL, while choosing to rest four first-choice players? Yes, Craig McRae suggested Brayden Maynard and Brody Mihocek were dealing with a few ailments, but had this match been a final, they would have played. So too would Jordan De Goey and Scott Pendlebury. Not only were the Pies undermanned, they came up against a Fremantle side in dire need of a response at home. What ensued was another reminder that Collingwood will be incredibly hard to beat at the pointy end of the year. Australian rules football isn't like basketball or the world game, it is harder to plug and play due to the sheer number of players there are on the field. With a larger amount of players comes a larger chance for things to go wrong if guys aren't on the same page. What Collingwood did against Fremantle was the finest example of plug-and-play that you're ever likely to see. Pendlebury and De Goey are two of the Magpies' top six centre bounce players so far this season. With the pair out, Craig McRae put ironman Jack Crisp into the coalface and it yielded instant positive results. Crisp attended 61 per cent of the Pies' centre bounces against Fremantle, by far his highest of the season (his previous high was 13 per cent against the Swans in round five), and responded with 29 disposals and seven clearances, the most by any Collingwood player. The Magpies are now in year four of the McRae era and clearly have supreme confidence in what he preaches. They are able to adjust on the fly, pardon the pun, better than any other team in the competition. Each player not only knows their own role, but their teammate's role as well, allowing the Pies to shapeshift throughout a contest as much as the game deems necessary. It is why they regularly prevail in close games.
