Nikolas Cox (born 15 January 2002) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who plays for the

Essendon Bombers The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). He was recruited by Essendon with the 8th draft pick in the

2020 AFL draft The 2020 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) could trade and recruit players following the completion of the 2020 AFL season. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nati ...

. He is the son of former VFL player Darryl Cox.

Early football

Cox played football for the

Montmorency Football Club Montmorency Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Montmorency, Victoria, currently competing in Division 1 in the Northern Football League. History The club was formed in 1924 by Harold Hodgson and was originally based at Memori ...

in the

Northern Football Netball League The Northern Football Netball League (NFNL), formerly known as the Diamond Valley Football League (DVFL) and later the Northern Football League (NFL), is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Diamond Creek, Victori ...

. He also played for his school Ivanhoe Grammar in the AGSV school competition. He began playing for the Northern Knights in 2019, and had his 2020 season cancelled due to the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. During his 2019 season with the Knights, he kicked 9 goals from 10 games, and averaged 12.5 disposals and 4.9 marks a game. Cox represented Vic Metro in the

2019 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2019 NAB AFL Under-18 Championships was the 24th edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships, AFL Under-18 Championships. The tournament was played between five teams—The Allies (Australian rules football), Allies, South Australian state ...

. He began training with in late 2019 and early 2020 as part of the NAB AFL Academy.

AFL career

Cox debuted in the opening round of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...

, in 's 1 point loss to . On debut, Cox collected 9 disposals, 3 marks and 1 tackle. He was reported for striking Hawthorn player Oliver Hanrahan, and fined $2000. Cox obtained a Rising Star nomination in round 12 of the season, after he collected 23 disposals and kicked a goal. After missing a significant amount of football due to injury across 2022 and 2023, Cox played his first game in over 14 months in Round 19 of the

2023 AFL Season The 2023 AFL season was the 127th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 16 March to 30 September, comprising a 23-m ...

. He went on to play in all of the final 6 games of Essendon's season.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of 2023'' , - ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, , , , 13 , 22 , , 9 , , 9 , , 152 , , 107 , , 259 , , 81 , , 47 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 6.9 , , 4.9 , , 11.8 , , 3.7 , , 2.1 , - ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, , , , 13 , 5 , , 1 , , 3 , , 26 , , 37 , , 63 , , 20 , , 7 , , 0.2 , , 0.6 , , 5.2 , , 7.4 , , 12.6 , , 4.0 , , 1.4 , - ,

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, , , , 13 , 20 , , 8 , , 3 , , 127 , , 114 , , 241 , , 70 , , 50 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 6.4 , , 5.7 , , 12.1 , , 3.5 , , 2.5 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 53 !! 18 !! 18 !! 337 !! 297 !! 634 !! 189 !! 117 !! 0.3 !! 0.3 !! 6.4 !! 5.6 !! 12.0 !! 3.6 !! 2.2

Personal life

Cox supported the in his youth. He cited his favourite player from Essendon to watch as Alwyn Davey. Cox attended

Ivanhoe Grammar School Ivanhoe Grammar School is a private, co-educational, Anglican, day school, located in Ivanhoe (Buckley House and The Ridgeway Campus) and Doreen (Plenty Campus), both located in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Foun ...

. Cox has 2 sisters, Alexandra (Ally) and Montana. His sister,

Montana Cox Montana Cox (born 2 September 1993) is an Australian model, best known for being the winner of cycle 7 of ''Australia's Next Top Model''. ''Australia's Next Top Model'' Cox was announced the winner of ''Australia's Next Top Model'', Cycle 7 ...

is a fashion model and a past winner of the

Australia's Next Top Model ''Australia's Next Top Model'' is an Australian reality television series which premiered on 11 January 2005 and concluded on 22 November 2016, and was based on Tyra Banks' ''America's Next Top Model''. It was broadcast on the Australian subsc ...

reality television show. He grew up in the

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

suburb of

Lower Plenty Lower Plenty is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 16 km north-east from Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Banyule Local Government Areas of Victoria, loc ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Nikolas 2002 births Living people Essendon Football Club players Northern Knights players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) People educated at Ivanhoe Grammar School 21st-century Australian sportsmen