Samuel Weideman (born 26 June 1997) is a professional

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 playing for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

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 ...

(AFL). A key forward, Weideman is tall and weighs . He played top-level football early, playing in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

as a bottom-aged player. His achievements as a junior included two

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

awards and national representation. Even though an ankle injury forced him to miss the majority of his final year of junior football, he was drafted by Melbourne with the ninth selection in the

2015 AFL draft The 2015 Australian Football League draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) can trade and recruit players following the completion of the 2015 AFL season. Additions to each club's playin ...

. He made his AFL debut in 2016, making him a third-generation footballer, whereby he is the grandson of the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

's 1958 premiership captain,

Murray Weideman Murray Weideman (16 February 1936 – 17 February 2021) was an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL). He died one day after his 85th birthday. Personal life The son of George Oliver and ...

, and the son of former Collingwood player,

Mark Weideman Mark Weideman (born 30 December 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Weideman was just 16 when he made his senior debut for South Australian National Football League ...

Early life

Weideman was born into an

family with his grandfather,

, playing 180 matches for the

, including winning two premierships (he captained the 1958 premiership), winning three Copeland Trophies as Collingwood's

, and is a member of the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

; his father,

, also played for Collingwood, playing 28 games. Although both his father and grandfather played for Collingwood, he grew up a passionate supporter of the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

. He attended

Whitefriars College , motto_translation = In The Care of a Loving Mother , city = Donvale , state = Victoria , zipcode = 3111 , country = Australia , coordinates = , ...

, graduating year twelve in 2015, and he played his junior football with the

Vermont Football Club The Vermont Football Club is an Australian rules football club located in Vermont, Victoria. They play in Premier Division of the Eastern Football League. The captain is Connor McCafferty. They are coached by Adam Parker. The jumper is pur ...

in the Eastern Football League where he won back-to-back best and fairests after switching from a ruckman to a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

at 16 years of age. He played with the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

in the

as a bottom-aged player in 2014, and despite an

iron deficiency Iron deficiency, or sideropenia, is the state in which a body lacks enough iron to supply its needs. Iron is present in all cells in the human body and has several vital functions, such as carrying oxygen to the tissues from the lungs as a key ...

and an ankle stress fracture hampering his second half of the season, he played fifteen matches and kicked nineteen goals. He received a scholarship within the prestigious AFL Academy for 2015, which included playing in the curtain raiser for the

2014 AFL Grand Final The 2014 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and the Hawthorn Football Club at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 27 September 2014. It was the 119th annual Grand Final of the Australian Football ...

with the under-17 Australian team. Returning to the Eastern Ranges in 2015, Weideman played five matches, kicking nine goals, including five goals in one match against the

Dandenong Stingrays The Dandenong Southern Stingrays are an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. 1992 saw the birth of the Southern Stingrays, developed under the leadership of Steve Kennedy (Regional Ma ...

. As part of the AFL Academy, he played two matches in April against

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) sides, and the , both at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

, in the second match, his first quarter saw him kick two goals and take five marks and he was named in the best players by ''AFL Media''. He received mid-year honours through selection with Vic Metro for the 2015 AFL Under 18 Championships, and he was named vice-captain, however a re-aggravation of his ankle injury saw him ruled out for the entire championships and the remainder of the TAC Cup season. After playing no football since May, doubts surrounded Weideman and his injuries, however Eastern Ranges talent manager, Len Villani, noted "his qualities made him a rare commodity", and the AFL Academy coach, Brad Johnson, stated "every now and then you’ll see things from him and you know with good development into the future, he’s going to turn into a really strong, consistent performer" and "the right people have seen enough already through his junior days to say he’ll be able to get back to some pretty strong fitness, work on his endurance and become a really good hit-up forward". Along with comparisons to forward,

Matthew Pavlich Matthew Pavlich (born 31 December 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A versatile player, Pavlich is widely regarded as one of the premi ...

, and forward, Tom Lynch, he was predicted to still be drafted inside the top ten in the 2015 national draft.

AFL career

After being linked to 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, ...

in the weeks leading to the 2015 national draft, Weideman was drafted by them with their second selection and ninth overall. After Melbourne declared they would take a "patient approach" with him, he played with Melbourne's affiliate team in the

(VFL), the

Casey Scorpions 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 ( ...

, and he kicked four goals in his debut match against along with four goals against the and three against . The match against Coburg was labelled his best for the year by Casey coach,

Justin Plapp Justin Plapp (born 22 June 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Justin was born in Penguin, Tasmania and attended Pengui ...

, and after kicking twenty goals from eleven matches, he made his AFL debut the next week in the twenty-nine point win against the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

at the

in round 20. His debut match was praised within the AFL industry for him "having an immediate impact" and he was labelled as "impressive", where he kicked a goal with his first kick and amassed six disposals in the first quarter, finishing with two goals and thirteen disposals. During his debut match, he suffered a

corked thigh Cork taint is a broad term referring to a wine fault characterized by a set of undesirable smells or tastes found in a bottle of wine, especially spoilage that can only be detected after bottling, aging and opening. Though modern studies have sho ...

which meant he missed the forty point win against at the

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby ...

the next week. He returned in round 22 for the twenty point loss against at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and he played the remaining match of the season to finish with three matches and three goals for the season. After the AFL season finished, he played in Casey's finals campaign, including the grand final loss to at

Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

. Following the conclusion of the

2022 AFL season The 2022 AFL season is the 126th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season features ...

, Weideman was traded to

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

in search of more opportunities as a key forward.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of the 2022 season''. , - ,

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2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

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2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

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2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

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2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

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2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, , , , 26 , 10 , , 13 , , 6 , , 46 , , 37 , , 83 , , 28 , , 14 , , 1.3 , , 0.6 , , 4.6 , , 3.7 , , 8.3 , , 2.8 , , 1.4 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 59 !! 62 !! 35 !! 273 !! 259 !! 532 !! 198 !! 81 !! 1.1 !! 0.6 !! 4.6 !! 4.4 !! 9.0 !! 3.4 !! 1.4 Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weideman, Sam 1997 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Casey Demons players Eastern Ranges players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)