Tyler Sonsie (born 27 January 2003) is a professional

Australian rules footballer 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 ...

playing for 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 ...

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). Sonsie was drafted by Richmond with the 28th pick in the

2021 AFL Draft The 2021 AFL draft comprised the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) can trade and recruit players during and following the completion of the 2021 AFL season. The National Draft returned to being a two day ...

, and made his AFL debut in round 18 of the 2022 season.

Early life and junior football

Sonsie played junior football in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs, the Lysterfield Wolves Junior Football Club, as well as at

Scoresby Scoresby may refer to: People * William Scoresby (1789–1857), British Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman * William F. Scoresby (1840–1884), New York politician * William Scoresby Routledge (1859–1939), British ethnographer, anthropolo ...

and

Rowville Rowville is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Knox local government area. Rowville recorded a population of 33,571 at the 2021 census. Rowvi ...

, and completed high school studies at

Rowville Secondary College Rowville Secondary College is a co-educational, public high school, located in Rowville, Victoria, Australia. It is divided into two campuses, the East and the West. The Eastern Campus has students from years 7 to 12 in the Rowville Sports Academ ...

in 2020. In 2019, Sonsie made his

NAB League 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 ...

debut, playing top level junior football for 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 ...

at age 16, including in the side's grand final loss. The same season he was selected to play national representative football for the Victorian Metropolitan Under 16s side, where he earned MVP honours as the team's best player in its national championship winning run. The impacts of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

saw the 2020 junior football season cancelled entirely. In the lead in to the 2021 season, Sonsie was projected by AFL Media and ESPN as a likely top five pick in the forthcoming AFL draft. During the year he played junior representative football with the Eastern Ranges, top level exhibition games for the AFL Academy side and made his VFL debut for Box Hill where he starred with 24 disposals and two goals. At the end of the NAB League season, he was rewarded with Team of the Year selection honours in what was a partially COVID interrupted season. Despite occasional starring performances, Sonsie's draft ranking progressively fell over the course of the season, as pundits considered his output uneven and inconsistent. Across his junior career, Sonsie was lauded for his ability to play inside and outside of midfield stoppages and his disposal accuracy. Immediately prior to the AFL draft, Sonsie was projected to be taken with the 17th and 23rd picks by AFL Media and ESPN, respectively.

AFL career

Sonsie was drafted by with the club's third pick and the 28th selection overall in the

2021 AFL draft The 2021 AFL draft comprised the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) can trade and recruit players during and following the completion of the 2021 AFL season. The National Draft returned to being a two day ...

. He made his debut in Round 18 of the 2022 season and held his spot for the remainder of the season, as well as in the club's elimination final loss to Brisbane. He played a total of seven AFL games that season. In Round 22 of the 2023 VFL season he was suspended for three weeks after violently punching North Melbourne's Tom Cappellari in the head.

AFL statistics

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

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 ...

, , , 40 , , 7 , , 3 , , 3 , , 71 , , 52 , , 123 , , 18 , , 13 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 10.1 , , 7.4 , , 17.6 , , 2.6 , , 1.9 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 7 ! 3 ! 3 ! 71 ! 52 ! 123 ! 18 ! 13 ! 0.4 ! 0.4 ! 10.1 ! 7.4 ! 17.6 ! 2.6 ! 1.9

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sonsie, Tyler 2003 births Living people Australian players of Australian rules football Richmond Football Club players Eastern Ranges players Place of birth missing (living people)