Ashley Sampi (born 21 January 1984) is an indigenous

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

. He attended

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in Perth, Western Australia and is most well known for taking the 2004 AFL Mark of the Year.

AFL career

Recruited by the Eagles at number six in the rich 2001 AFL National Draft, Sampi debuted against Geelong in round 14 of the 2002 season. In his debut season, Sampi played four games, including a final. Playing as a small forward, Sampi's AFL career was inconsistent; despite being a regular part of the side though the 2003 to 2005 seasons, he did not reach the heights that were expected of him given his original high selection. The high point of Sampi's career was his AFL

Mark of the Year The annual Australian Football League Mark of the Year competition (currently also known as the Four'N Twenty AFL Mark of the Year) is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best mark. A mark is the action of a player cleanly catchin ...

in 2004 against . Sampi was also selected in the Eagles' 2005 losing Grand Final team, but took a major step backward in the 2006 season, losing his regular spot in the team, and only managing twelve games though poor form, and not playing in the Eagle's victorious

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austral ...

team. Sampi's form seems to have often been related to weight issues. During the 2007 pre-season, Sampi was at times required to train separately from the rest of the club to deal with his weight issues; however, they seemed to come back under control, and he was reinstated to the main training list. Despite this, he failed to be selected for a single game throughout 2007, and he was delisted at the end of the season. Despite training with in late 2007, he was not recruited by the Demons, with a lack of fitness being cited as the main reason. He played for

Port Fairy Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the S ...

in 2008.

Controversy

During 2006, Sampi allegedly threatened his girlfriend and her sister with a knife. In 2007, Sampi was involved in a paternity dispute with his ex-girlfriend Christina Taylor. She claims that her daughter was the result of a planned pregnancy with Sampi. However, Sampi refused to sign the birth certificate or visit the child until it is proven that she is his daughter.Row Leads To Paternity Test For Sampi
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References

External links

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WAFL statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sampi, Ashley 1984 births Living people Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Indigenous Australians from Western Australia West Coast Eagles players South Fremantle Football Club players Port Fairy Football Club players People educated at Trinity College, Perth People from the Kimberley (Western Australia) Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia