Tom Papley (born 13 July 1996) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted with pick 14 in the 2016 rookie draft.

AFL career

Papley made his AFL debut in round 1 of the 2016 AFL season against the Collingwood Football Club, kicking three goals. He earned the Rising Star nomination for round 5 following an impressive display against 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 L ...

in which he kicked two goals, earned 20 possessions, had six inside-50s and took eight marks in a match played in wet weather. Arguably his best season was in 2019, impressing many after the absence of

Lance Franklin Lance Franklin (born 30 January 1987), also known as Buddy Franklin, is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Hawthorn Football Club from ...

when he tied in 14th for goalkickers, with 37 goals. He kicked 4 goals against

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

and 5 goals against the

, proving to be two of his best performances. But throughout the year, Papley had a desire to return home back to Victoria despite being contracted to the Swans until 2023 and was heavily linked to both Carlton and North Melbourne. During the trade period, he requested a trade to Carlton, but Papley wasn't given his wish as the trade didn't go through. Papley was selected to play for Victoria in the State Of Origin Bushfire Relief game, where he kicked 5 goals. Papley played all 17 games of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th 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 feature ...

, kicking 26 goals and leading the Swan's goalkicking tally for the second year in a row. His standout performance came against

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

in Round 8, kicking 4 goals and sparking Sydney to a 7 point victory. Papley rose to new heights in the 2021 AFL season, with a career-high 41 goals. This included four-goal performances against

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, GWS and

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 Ki ...

, and the match-winning goal against Geelong in round 7. Papley was rewarded with his first ever

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

jumper in the 2021 All-Australian team, confirming his status as one of the competition's premier small forwards. Papley missed the first six rounds of the 2022 season due to a preseason hamstring injury he suffered in a practice match with GWS. Despite the late start to the season he was awarded with being a member of the All-Australian Squad in 2022.

Family

His grandfathers, Jeff Bray and Max Papley, were teammates with the South Melbourne Swans from 1964 to 1966, before the team's move to Sydney. Tom Papley wore number 41 for his first two seasons, but following the retirement of Jeremy Laidler after the 2017 season Papley was able to take on number 11, the number Max Papley wore for 45 of his 59 matches with the South Melbourne Swans. Two of Papley's cousins,

Ben Ross Benjamin David "Ben" Ross (born 23 May 1980) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. A Queensland State of Origin representative forward, he played in the National Rugby League for the S ...

and Michael Ross, have also recently played in the AFL.

Statistics

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

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, , , , 41 , 20 , , 29 , , 15 , , 141 , , 102 , , 243 , , 57 , , 72 , , 1.5 , , 0.8 , , 7.1 , , 5.1 , , 12.2 , , 2.9 , , 3.6 , , 0 , - ,

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 s ...

, , , , 41 , 20 , , 30 , , 19 , , 193 , , 119 , , 312 , , 67 , , 86 , , 1.5 , , 0.9 , , 9.7 , , 6.0 , , 15.6 , , 3.4 , , 4.3 , , 0 , - ,

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 Unit ...

, , , , 11 , 20 , , 24 , , 23 , , 169 , , 104 , , 273 , , 65 , , 58 , , 1.2 , , 1.1 , , 8.4 , , 5.2 , , 13.7 , , 3.2 , , 2.9 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 11 , 22 , , 37 , , 28 , , 241 , , 99 , , 340 , , 106 , , 62 , , 1.7 , , 1.3 , , 10.9 , , 4.5 , , 15.4 , , 4.8 , , 2.8 , , 4 , - ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

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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 coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, , , , 11 , 23 , , 43 , , 27 , , 230 , , 83 , , 313 , , 89 , , 34 , , 1.9 , , 1.2 , , 10.0 , , 3.6 , , 13.6 , , 3.9 , , 1.5 , , 4 , - ,

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

, , , , 11 , 19 , , 32 , , 26 , , 203 , , 87 , , 290 , , 79 , , 37 , , 1.7 , , 1.4 , , 10.7 , , 4.6 , , 15.3 , , 4.2 , , 1.9 , , 5 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 141 !! 221 !! 165 !! 1325 !! 646 !! 1971 !! 520 !! 378 !! 1.6 !! 1.2 !! 9.4 !! 4.6 !! 14.0 !! 3.7 !! 2.7 !! 19

Honours and achievements

Team *

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...

():

Individual *

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

* 2× Sydney leading goalkicker: 2019, 2020 * Victoria representative honours in

State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match The State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match was a one-off all-star game between two representative sides organised by the Australian Football League to raise funds for recovery efforts following the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season. Th ...

: 2020 * 22under22 team: 2017 * AFL Rising Star nominee: 2016 (round 5)

References

External links

* * * Living people 1996 births Gippsland Power players Sydney Swans players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub