{"id":278217,"date":"2025-11-11T18:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/278217\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T18:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:51:12","slug":"gold-coast-prospect-compared-to-errol-gulden-opens-up-on-back-injury-and-afl-draft-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/278217\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Coast prospect compared to Errol Gulden opens up on back injury and AFL draft hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uwland\u2019s own setback, which remains somewhat of a mystery, meant he missed most of the 2025 season, including the national championships, giving his peers the chance to challenge his hold on the No.1 prospect status.<\/p>\n

He returned from his own back ailment, including a bulging disc and stress fracture, in time to make a handful of VFL appearances for Gold Coast and test strongly at last month\u2019s draft combine.<\/p>\n

\"Uwland,<\/p>\n

Uwland, pictured during his All-Australian campaign at last year\u2019s national championships, is a budding AFL star.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have Bodhi\u2019s support was so good. Him being through it, I definitely saw the light at the end of the tunnel, so it wasn\u2019t the end of the world when it happened,\u201d Uwland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was weird. I\u2019d never experienced something like it. They don\u2019t even know if it was fractured, but the report said it was. It is confusing. It\u2019s not conclusive at all, but I\u2019d rather miss the time now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The high-achieving Uwland, who has Dutch heritage and a heap of relatives in the Colac and Cobden regions, saw a silver lining that many others might not.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old diligently attacked his rehab, but also decided to throw himself full-time into his studies at Griffith University, where he is doing a law and commerce degree.<\/p>\n

Uwland is not your typical footballer, in more ways than one, even if part of his motivation is the statistics around the average AFL player lasting only four years at the top level. The likelihood of him being spat out of the system that quickly is low, but his back injury was a reminder not to take football for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to prepare myself as best I can for what\u2019s after that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnocking out a year-and-a-bit\u2019s worth of uni this year is going to be huge in setting me up to, hopefully, have a successful career after football, whenever that may be. I want to be a corporate lawyer one day. I\u2019m really particular about what I like, and I\u2019m really ambitious with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uwland is preparing to join a Suns side that is no longer the competition easybeat.<\/p>\n

\"Bodhi<\/p>\n

Bodhi Uwland, spoiling the Western Bulldogs\u2019 Laitham Vandermeer, is a key contributor for the Suns.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

Under Damien Hardwick, they finally ended their finals drought and even won a game in September. Another academy graduate, Dylan Patterson, is poised to be a top-five pick, too, while three others \u2013 Beau Addinsall, Jai Murray and Koby Coulson \u2013 could be bid upon before selection 40.<\/p>\n

Uwland has grand plans to feature in the club\u2019s inaugural premiership, and ideally with Bodhi by his side.<\/p>\n

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They have played together only once, when Uwland was eight and Bodhi 12, for a junior Northern Rivers team in a practice game. Bodhi set up his little brother for their only goal that day, so they have come a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI define successful careers by premierships and games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I want to do is play as many games as I can, and be available. My biggest goal is to play in round one [next year], so doing whatever I can for the team will help me get that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone would love to be a part of a premiership, and doing that at the Suns would be pretty special, especially alongside my brother. Watching the Lions boys go about it, especially the first-year players, like Ty Gallop, Sam Marshall and Levi Ashcroft, shows you that it\u2019s not that far away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uwland\u2019s own setback, which remains somewhat of a mystery, meant he missed most of the 2025 season, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-278217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}