{"id":336226,"date":"2023-10-04T05:24:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T05:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=336226"},"modified":"2023-10-04T12:02:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:02:06","slug":"much-loved-top-10-draft-pick-retires-at-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=336226","title":{"rendered":"'Much-loved' top 10 draft pick retires at 26"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\ufeffrisbane Lions<\/a> forward Nakia Cockatoo is a former top 10 draft pick but has announced his AFL<\/a> retirement at the age of just 26, having fought a gruelling battle with injuries.<\/p>\n

The goal-kicker arrived at Geelong<\/a> via pick 10 in the 2014 draft, but\ufeff he managed only 34 senior games across six seasons at the Cats.<\/p>\n

He was traded to Brisbane after the 2020 season but appeared in just 15 senior matches at the Lions.\ufeff<\/p>\n

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He told his teammates of his retirement decision on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of Brisbane's best and fairest awards night.<\/p>\n

"Nakia is one of the nicest people you could meet in football and has been a much-loved member of our club that will be missed," said Lions footy boss Danny Daly.<\/p>\n

\"Nakia<\/p>\n

"Being a top-10 pick highlights the potential and talent Nakia had as a footballer, but unfortunately for him injuries and his body provided challenges throughout his career.<\/p>\n

"However, to play 49 games of AFL football, including some of those being finals, is something he should still be very proud of.<\/p>\n

"We wish Nakia and his family all the best with their life after football and thank him for his service to the Brisbane Lions."<\/p>\n

Brisbane delisted Cockatoo after the 2022 season but reselected him in the rookie draft.<\/p>\n

\ufeffHe turned out for Geelong in a 2017 preliminary final, before featuring in Brisbane's 2021 quarter-final and semi-final sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

B\ufeffrisbane Lions forward Nakia Cockatoo is a former top 10 draft pick but has announced his AFL retirement at the age of just 26, having […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336229,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336226\/revisions\/336229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/336228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}