AFL medical panel set to determine future of Essendon’s Nik Cox

Concussion could claim the career of a young Bomber as Essendon coach Brad Scott plots a path away from another fade-out in the second half of the season.

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.

Nik Cox’s future is up in the air. Picture: Mark Stewart

“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.

Things have gone pear-shaped for Zach Merrett and the Bombers. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“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.”

Originally published as AFL medical panel set to determine future of Essendon’s Nik Cox