Two top-five finishes in the best and fairest, Victorian representative in the 2020 State of Origin game, 2019 All-Australian squad, 130 games, 2019 Grand Final appearance, the CV is filling up for Nick. Not bad for a kid who at 17 y.o. decided to go and play for the Frankston Bombers after not playing football for four years. After a string of good performances, Nick was invited to the Dandenong Stingrays in 2011. Later that year he was drafted in the first round. “I was shocked to go pick 7 in the draft considering my lackluster performances for Vic Country in the U18 Championship,” states Nick.
Pre-season training in Sydney followed shortly after. “My initial feeling was of anxiety,” Nick recalled. “The unknown of moving interstate, meeting a whole new bunch of people.” “Then to play at the highest level where I didn’t feel I belonged,” was a challenge Nick had to work his way through.
Work his way through it he did. Fast forward eight years, Nick’s initial fears have been quashed, with the number 19 being regarded as one of the best intercept defenders in the game.