Tom Cole

DOB

28/5/97

Height

185cm

Weight

80 kg

Junior club

Bendigo Pioneers/Sandhurst JFC

Arrived

Pick 36 in the 2015 national draft

Number

28

Debut

Round 10 2016 vs Gold Coast
(227th Eagles player)

Games

95

Goals

4

Honours

Premiership medal (2018)

B&F Top 10

1 (2021)

Best Finish

9th (2021)

Other clubs

Bendigo (TAC Cup) 2015
East Perth (WAFL) 2016-2018

Defender Tom Cole was a member of the 2018 premiership side after being drafted from country Victoria in the 2015 national draft.

West Coast career[]

Hailing from Sandhurst, the junior club that produced the Selwood brothers, Cole represented Vic Country and played several VFL matches for Geelong before being drafted to West Coast. On being drafted, Cole was described as a classy medium defender/midfielder who was highly skilled by hand and foot and thrived in contested situations.

Cole immediately showed great promise on a half-back flank at East Perth, showing a willingness to run and take the game on, and after eight straight weeks as an emergency finally broke through for two senior games mid-year. His form tailed off slightly later in the year as the long season took its toll.

After a decent pre-season campaign, Cole suffered a quad injury on the eve of the 2017 season. He recovered to be a solid performer in the backline at WAFL level, and managed to add four senior games following the mid-season bye. On track for a Round 1 berth following a strong pre-season in 2018, Cole suffered the tragic loss of his father Russell to cancer on the eve of the season.^[1] He was called up early in the season and became a fixture in defence from that point on, earning a Rising Star nomination late in the year and a premiership medal on Grand Final day.

Cole struggled to find the same form in 2019, and after playing the first 12 games was dropped in favour of Jackson Nelson. He returned for two games, but spent the rest of the latter half of the year in the reserves. Hampered at the start of 2020 by a fractured thumb, Cole broke into the side during the club's unsuccessful first Gold Coast hub stint, and became one of the year's success stories. Used on the wing on occasion, he kicked the first three goals of his career over a three-game period. He continued that form through 2021, playing every game in a defence that was under siege at times, and finishing in the top ten of the best and fairest for the first time.

Unfortunately, he was able to build on that the following season, with an ankle injury suffered during the pre-season keeping him out for the year and seeing him placed on the inactive list. Cole almost lost a second straight season after suffering a stress reaction in the same ankle, but was able to return in the second half of the 2023 and played the final couple of months, proving a calming presence in an under-fire defence.

Stats[]

AFL	Gm	G	B	K	M	H	D	T	Cl	WAFL	Gm	G	B	K	M	H	D	T
2016	2	0	0	13	8	13	26	2	1	EP	16	2	1	132	65	167	299	20
2017	4	0	0	17	7	16	33	10	0		10	0	0	74	31	75	149	33
2018	21	0	1	151	73	124	275	51	6		2	1	0	14	4	13	27	4
2019	14	0	0	107	67	53	160	47	8	WCE	7	0	0	80	29	38	118	22
2020	15	3	0	95	48	62	157	30	7	N/A
2021	22	0	0	203	105	98	301	44	8	WCE	0
2022	0										0
2023	12	1	0	108	67	86	194	29	5		0
Tot	90	4	1	694	375	452	1146	213	35
Avg		0.0		7.7	4.2	5.0	12.7	2.4	0.4