Nicholas Sautner (born 19 June 1977) is an

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, best known for his

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) football career with the

Sandringham Zebras The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne which was formed in 1929 and plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL) which was formerly called the Victorian Football Associatio ...

. He also played for Frankston in 2001 and 2002 and Preston in 2003. He won the

Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal The Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal is awarded to the Victorian Football League player who kicks the most goals in home-and-away matches in that year. The is named in honour of Jim 'Frosty' Miller, who was the leading goalkicker of the Victorian Footba ...

for leading goalkicker in the VFL a record nine times, breaking the record held by the eponymous

Jim 'Frosty' Miller Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim ...

of six. He was league leading goalkicker a record six years in a row from 1999 to 2004, breaking the record of four in a row held by George Taylor (1920–1923) and Miller (1968–1971), and won the award nine times in eleven years from 1999 to 2009.

Career overview

Sautner began his VFL career in 1996 with the

Springvale Football Club The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the "Demons" and formerly the "Scorpions", is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the Springvale Football Club and the Casey Scorpions ( ...

, playing as a defender, but he never managed a senior game for Springvale. He moved to Sandringham in 1997, where he played in a premiership side in 1997. Two years later, Sautner kicked 89 goals and won the inaugural Jim "Frosty" Miller Medal as the competition's leading goalkicker. The 2000 season saw the VFL become affiliated with the professional

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 ...

, and saw Sandringham affiliated with the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

. Sautner kicked 70 goals and won the Frosty Miller Medal again as part of the Zebras' premiership team. Sautner switched teams in 2001 when he moved to bayside rival Frankston and again in 2003 when he was lured to the Northern Bullants. He played a total of 58 games with those clubs, and he was the league's leading goalkicker again in all three seasons, including his career-best 93 goals in the 2002 season with Frankston. He returned to Sandringham in 2004 and won the Frosty Miller medal for the sixth consecutive time, a VFL record, as well as winning a third premiership with the Zebras. In the following two seasons, Sautner won two more premierships, bringing his total to five (a Sandringham record), but his streak of Frosty Miller medals was broken by

James Podsiadly James Podsiadly (born 10 September 1981) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played for the Geelong Football Club and the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted by as a mature-a ...

in 2005. Between 2007 and 2009, Sautner won another three Frosty Miller Medals, bringing his total to nine, a VFA/VFL record as of 2022. Sautner announced his retirement from VFL football in January 2011. Sautner played with

Collegians Collegians are an Australian rugby league football team based in Wollongong. The club are a part of Country Rugby League and compete in the Illawarra Rugby League premiership. Originally known as CBC Old Boys, the Club was founded in 1933. The ...

in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division 4. In addition there ...

in 2011 and 2012, winning premierships in both seasons.

Post-football career

After retiring from football, Sautner has held numerous sports administration positions. In June 2016, Sautner was announced as the General Manager Commercial at

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

.Sautner Returns to Sport with Role at Eden Park, NZ
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References

External links

Sautner announces VFL RetirementPersonal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sautner, Nick 1977 births Sandringham Football Club players Frankston Football Club players Preston Football Club (VFA) players Collegians Football Club players Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)