Nick Cotric
Nikola "Nick" Cotric[2] (Serbian: Nikola Čotrić; Cyrillic: Никола Чотрић; born 18 November 1998) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who primarily plays as a winger and centre in the NRL for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, and has played for the New South Wales rugby league team as well as Australia at international level. In 2018, he played one game for the Prime Minister's XIII. He previously played for the Canberra Raiders.
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Full name | Nikola Cotric | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Cooma, New South Wales, Australia | 18 November 1998||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 185 cm (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 98 kg (15 st 6 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position | Wing, Centre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As of 2 July 2020 Source: [1] |
Background
Cotric was born in Cooma, New South Wales, Australia, and is of Serbian descent.[3]
He played his junior rugby league for the Valley Dragons, before being signed by the Canberra Raiders.
Playing career
Early years
In 2016, Cotric was a member of the Canberra Raiders' NYC team, playing 21 games primarily at centre.[4][5] In August 2016, Cotric re-signed with the Raiders on a 2-year contract until the end of 2018,[6] In 2016, Cotric played for the Australian Schoolboys.[7] On 5 September 2016, Cotric was named at centre in the 2016 NYC Team of the Year.[8]
2017
Before the season started, Cotric was groomed to fill in the right-wing flank to fill the void made by the departure of Edrick Lee.[9] In February 2017, Cotric was named in the Raiders 2017 NRL Auckland Nines squad.[10] In Round 1 of the 2017 NRL season, Cotric made his NRL debut for the Canberra Raiders against the North Queensland Cowboys, playing on the wing in the 20-16 Golden Point loss at 1300SMILES Stadium.[11][12] In Round 3 against the Wests Tigers, Cotric scored his first NRL career try in the 46-6 win at Canberra Stadium.[13] On 13 September 2017, Cotric was awarded with the Raiders Rookie of the year at the Mal Meninga Medal Awards night.[14] On 27 September 2017, Cotric received the Rookie of the Year award at the 2017 Dally M Awards night.[15] Even though the Raiders didn’t make the top 8 into the finals, Cotric capped off a great debut season with him playing in all of the Raiders 24 matches and scoring 16 tries in the 2017 NRL season. On 3 November 2017, Cotric extended his contract with the Raiders to the end of the 2020 season.[16] On 19 December 2017, Cotric was selected in Brad Fittler’s emerging New South Wales squad.[17]
2018
On 28 May 2018, Cotric was named as 18th man for New South Wales for Game 1 of the 2018 State of Origin series.[18] Cotric would play some matches at fullback towards the end of the season, filling in for the suspended Jack Wighton.[19] Cotric finished the 2018 NRL season with him playing in all of the Raiders 24 matches and scoring 12 tries. On 6 October 2018, Cotric played for the Prime Minister’s XIII against Papua New Guinea, playing on the wing and scoring a try in the 34-18 win at Port Moresby.[20] At the end of the season, statistics showed that Cotric was on top of tackle break count with 149, pipping the Sydney Roosters Grand Final winning fullback James Tedesco by 2.
2019
After a good start to the season, Cotric was selected to represent New South Wales in the 2019 State of Origin series. He played in game 1, which Queensland won 18-14, but was ruled out for Game 2 with an ankle injury.
In Round 17, Cotric was sent off for a dangerous lifting tackle on St George centre Tim Lafai, and suspended for 3 matches.[21][22][23]
Cotric played a total of 22 games for Canberra in the 2019 NRL season as the club reached their first grand final in 25 years. He played on the wing in the 2019 NRL Grand Final as they were defeated by the Sydney Roosters.[24][25][26]
On 7 October, Cotric was named in the Australian side for the Oceania Cup fixtures.
2020
In round 15 of the 2020 NRL season, Cotric scored two tries for Canberra in a 36-16 victory over the Gold Coast at Cbus Super Stadium. This followed on from the prior in round 14 where he scored two tries against Brisbane.[27]
On 22 July 2020, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs announced the signing of Cotric on a three-year deal starting in the 2021 season and rumoured to be worth around $600,000 per season.[28]
Cotric played 23 games for Canberra scoring 14 tries, finishing as the club's top try scorer. In his final game for Canberra which was the preliminary final, he scored two tries in a 30-10 loss against Melbourne.[29]
References
- "Nick Cotric - Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project.
- Polkinghorne, David (30 July 2017). "Could Canberra Raiders rookie Nick Cotric be player of the year?". Canberra Times. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- James Hooper (2 February 2017). "NRL: Canberra Raiders Nick Cotric, Wests Tigers contracts, Robbie Farah — The Mail". Fox Sports. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- "C". NYC Database. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- "Canberra Raiders - 2016". NYC Database. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- Raiders.com.au (5 August 2016). "Nick Cotric re-signs with the Raiders". Zero Tackle. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- "ASSRL Schoolboys rugby league news, Australian Secondary School Rugby League, Australian Schoolboys". Ourfootyteam.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- "2016 Holden Cup Team of the Year announced". NRL.com. 28 February 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- http://www.canberratimes.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/nrl-round-one-canberra-raiders-young-gun-nick-cotric-goes-from-family-kitchen-to-nrl-20170225-gul78q.html
- https://www.nrl.com/news/2017/02/04/2017-downer-nrl-auckland-nines-squads/
- http://www.canberratimes.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/nick-cotric-to-make-nrl-debut-in-canberra-raiders-fresh-leftedge-pairing-against-north-queensland-cowboys-20170227-gumqzo.html
- https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/live-nrl-north-queensland-cowboys-v-canberra-raiders/news-story/4c08f6df6a67676a45c768d3977190a8
- https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/teams/raiders/canberra-raiders-have-beaten-the-wests-tigers-466-to-post-first-win/news-story/1b76fa5934480a404601ec8af5f89760
- http://www.canberratimes.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/junior-paulo-takes-out-canberra-raiders-mal-meninga-medal-20170911-gyeuje.html
- https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/dally-m-2017-canberra-raiders-nick-cotric-wins-nrl-rookie-of-the-year/news-story/27b4aebd2cbffd50fe47ffcf6742324d
- http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/green-machine-resign-rising-star-winger-nick-cotric-on-threeyear-deal/news-story/cdbe1eb3724537af2786663dba63cdc0
- http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/nrl-canberra-raiders-star-nick-cotric-named-in-brad-fittlers-emerging-blues-squad-20171218-h06ys0.html
- https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/taste-of-origin-will-only-make-nsw-blues-prospect-nick-cotric-better-20180528-p4zi06.html
- https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nick-cotric-named-at-fullback-for-raiders-clash-against-cowboys-20180710-p4zqne.html
- https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/10/06/prime-ministers-xiii-score-hard-earned-win-over-papua-new-guinea-pms-xiii/
- "Injury robs Cotric of Origin spot but Raiders flyer set for quick recovery". www.foxsports.com.au.
- "Cotric sent off for dangerous throw on Lafai as Raiders down Dragons". www.nrl.com.
- "JWH not guilty; Cotric to miss three games". NRL.
- "NRL grand final player ratings: Roosters and Raiders hits and misses". SMH.
- "Sydney Roosters beat Canberra Raiders to win NRL Grand Final". BBC.
- "How Ricky Stuart reacted to grand final 'six-again' refereeing shocker". WWOS.
- "South Sydney beats Manly in 56-16 NRL thrashing, Roosters and Canberra record victories". www.abc.net.au.
- {{cite web | URL= https://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2020/07/22/nick-cotric-signs-three-year-deal-with-the-bulldogs/ | title nick cotric signs three year deal with the bulldogs | website=Www.bulldogs.com.au
- "Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart storms out of press conference after one question". wwos.nine.com.au.