Top AFL draft prospect Nik Cox has made the most of a bad year.
Key points:
- This year’s potential draftees have faced the challenges presented by COVID-19
- Nik Cox is regarded as one of the brightest draft prospects despite a lack of football this season
- Players overlooked in the 2020 draft will get another opportunity in 2021
When a COVID-19 lockdown in March ultimately ended Victoria’s elite youth competition before it even started, the 18-year-old took it as an opportunity to grow both emotionally and physically.
“Overall it’s actually been pretty good for me personally, but still pretty disappointing to miss out on footy,” said Cox, who hails from Lower Plenty in Melbourne’s north-east.
Cox hit his local athletics track hard and added eight or nine kilograms to his 200-centimetre frame.
“I’ve never done a sustained period of gym (training) ever in my life and it was good for me to be able to focus on my running as well and get that to a really high elite level,” he said.
Cox excelled at the recent draft combine — a physical and mental testing camp for budding recruits — in part thanks to a training regime led by his uncle, a running coach.
He ran the two-kilometre time trial in just six minutes and three seconds — the fourth-best time — and completed the 20-metre sprint in 2.95 seconds.
“It’s been a good learning curve and Nik has put the hard work in,” Cox’s running coach Bernie Smith said.
“It goes to show clubs the ones who want to put the work in and develop and reach their future goals [even though] they were given circumstances a bit different to the norm, so I think it will stand him in good stead, actually.”
Cox’s father Darryl played for Fitzroy, Melbourne and the Brisbane Bears through the 1980s and has been a big influence on Nik.
“Dad tried to take me through the gym, show me the ropes. He didn’t mind himself in the gym,” Cox laughed.
Future stars could be overlooked
Luckily, Cox had the chance to impress in front of recruiters last year as an bottom-age player with the Northern Knights.
Because of this year’s footy shutdown in Victoria and reduced interstate seasons, experts believe some future stars could miss out in the draft altogether.
“It’s been such a unique year that half the boys in the (draft) pool haven’t played games, so it’s a year where the club scouts are going to have to earn their money; they’re going to have to speculate even more than they normally would do,” AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan said.
As players develop, some come from nowhere to rocket into draft contention — known as “draft bolters”.
Current stars Clayton Oliver and Jack Macrae went from being barely sighted to too hard to ignore, but both may have struggled to find AFL clubs in 2020.
“Sometimes they’ve grown another three or four centimetres in the year or added another seven or eight kilos,” Sheehan said.
“There’s other elements, they’ve matured as a person. They might become a future leader at the footy club so those last-minute interviews become very, very important as they assess a very talented group of young men wanting to get into the AFL and forge a career.”
Players overlooked in 2020 will get another opportunity in 2021 after the AFL expanded the number of 19-year-old’s able to be taken by clubs.
While Cox nervously awaits his playing future his hopes for next week’s draft are simple.
“Just to get picked up,” he said excitedly.
“As long as I get picked up I’m really happy. It’s all I’ve been working for not just this year but my whole life.
“It’s been my dream but also my family’s dream too, so if I get picked up in the first round or the fourth round I really don’t mind as long as I get there.”
The draft will take place virtually on December 9.
