Loss and injury compound Storm star’s misery

Melissa Woods | October 9, 2025

Star Melbourne winger Xavier Coates should be celebrating after his Kangaroos selection and being named the Storm’s 2025 Player of the Year.

But instead, Melbourne’s NRL grand final loss to Brisbane and a serious injury, which ruled him out of the Ashes series against England, put a major dampener on the 24-year-old’s end-of-season plans.

Coates left Accor Stadium following the shattering 26-22 defeat last Sunday hobbling in a moon-boot.

Diagnosed with a partial achilles tendon tear, he told AAP he will have to wear the support until the start of the pre-season in mid-December, scuppering his plans for an overseas holiday.

“It’s quite painful at the moment, but at least it’s in the off-season so I can rehab it,” Coates said.

“I should be good to go when I get back for pre-season, I’ve just got to tick off a few boxes with the medical staff and hopefully I’ll be good to go after that.”

The Queensland State of Origin flyer said he was disappointed to miss the Kangaroos’ three Tests against England – the first time since 2003 the old foes have contested an Ashes series.

But their second successive grand final loss hurt the Papua New Guinea product even more.

“It’s definitely hard, but at the same time it’s something I can’t control,” Coates said of withdrawing from international selection.

“I’m obviously a bit more disheartened about the loss at the grand final, but I would have loved to have gone away with the Kangaroos.

“It’s been really hard to take, especially last year losing a grand final and then backing that up with another grand final loss.

“It’s definitely a hard pill to swallow, but I guess it’s going to show a lot of resilience to bounce back from this.

“It’s going to be hard rocking up to pre-season and we’ve got a whole other year of doing it again, but I think the boys will get up for it.”

Coates, who won the Cameron Smith player of the year gong for the second time after also taking the honour in 2023, said the grand final result was about “icing the moments”.

“We didn’t ice our moments and the Broncos did that – they got a lot of momentum and they capitalised on a lot of opportunities that were given to them and we didn’t,” he said.

“I felt like we played a really good first half, but we know the Broncos are a very good team and they play a lot of attacking footy when they’re behind in points.”

Linked to rival clubs and rebel rugby competition R360, halfback Jonah Pezet and fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen, who won best back, both attended the night, as did Nelson Asofa-Solomona.

While their playing future was kept under wraps during the awards, the Storm announced on Thursday Kiwi Test prop Asofa-Solomona had been granted an immediate release from his contract, allowing him to “consider other opportunities”.

Coates attended the presentation with his girlfriend Destiny Mino-Sinapati, who is also a winger with the Gold Coast Titans NRLW team, and said she had been a great support for him.

“She’s picked up a couple of injuries and that’s kept her out for a lengthy period of time, but we’ve got each other’s back and that’s all that matters,” he said.

“We lean on each other and we see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is good.”