Aaron Wade Sandilands (born 6 December 1982) is a former 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). At tall, and with a peak weight of , he is the second heaviest (behind Mick Nolan) and equal tallest player to ever play in the AFL. Originally from Mount Barker,

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, Sandilands played with the

East Fremantle Football Club The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks and colloquially referred to as East Freo, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is Eas ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL), before being rookie listed by Fremantle in the 2002 Rookie Draft. Upgraded from the rookie list at the end of the 2002 season, he made his senior debut for the club in round one of the 2003 season. Due to his height, Sandilands played almost exclusively as a ruckman, occasionally resting in the forward line. He was named in the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, 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-perfo ...

for three consecutive years between 2008 and 2010, and again in 2014. He is also a dual Doig Medallist as Fremantle's

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 ...

player, won in 2009 and 2015. Sandilands was inducted into the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise significant contributors to Australian rules football in Western Australia. Candidates are players, coaches, umpires, administrators and media representatives. The induct ...

in 2024.

Early career

Originally from the small town of Mount Barker in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, Sandilands originally played at Under 17s level for the Mount Barker Football Club. He moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, joined Willetton Junior Football Club and was selected by Fremantle in the rookie draft prior to the 2002 season. He spent the entire 2002 year playing for

East Fremantle East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

in the WAFL, before being elevated to the senior list prior to the 2003 season.

AFL career

Playing in 19 games in his first season, the highlights were being nominated for the

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Bu ...

and earning a

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

vote for a dominant display against the reigning premiers,

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

in Round 14 and playing in Fremantle's first ever finals match. Despite

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

being convincing winners, Sandilands was one of the few to perform well, with 41 hitouts. As ruckmen are generally considered to peak in their late 20s, Sandilands had impressed many to rank 6th or 5th in total hitouts in each of his first three seasons in the AFL, improving to 2nd (with the highest average) in 2006. Despite this dominance in hitouts, it did not always result in Fremantle winning the clearances. In 2006 Sandilands suffered a broken jaw in the round 6

Western Derby The Western Derby () is the name given to the Australian rules football matches between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers, who both participate in the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW). As both teams are ba ...

in a clash with then

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 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

ruckman

Mark Seaby Mark Seaby (born 1 May 1984) is a former professional Australian rules football player. He is best known as a former premiership player with the West Coast Eagles as well as being a backup ruckman for the Sydney Swans. Biography Originally fro ...

. Following an investigation by the AFL, no charges were laid over the incident. Sandilands has been named in the

All-Australian Team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, 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-perfo ...

four times: on the interchange bench in 2008, as the only ruckman in the 2009 team, and as the key ruckman in 2010 and 2014. In 2010, Sandilands polled a team-high 20 votes in the Brownlow Medal, placing equal sixth overall alongside Matthew Boyd. This represents one of the highest vote tallies and best finishes by a ruckman in the recent history of the medal, which has been dominated by midfielders. Sandilands suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung after being kneed in the back by Nic Naitanui in the Western Derby in round 3, 2016. He did not return to football until round 20, playing two of the final three games of the season. Sandilands retired at the end of the

2019 AFL season The 2019 AFL season was the 123rd 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 ...

. Following his retirement, Sandilands was appointed as Fremantle's specialist ruck coach for 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 featur ...

. During the

2021 AFL season The 2021 AFL season was the 125th 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 ...

, there were brief rumours that either Carlton or would attempt to draft Sandilands in the mid-season draft, but Sandilands stated that he had no interest in becoming a player again.

Statistics

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2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, , 31 , , 19 , , 5 , , 1 , , 61 , , 76 , , 137 , , 56 , , 15 , , 353 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 3.2 , , 4.0 , , 7.2 , , 2.9 , , 0.8 , , 18.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, , 31 , , 20 , , 3 , , 1 , , 74 , , 98 , , 172 , , 61 , , 21 , , 473 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 3.7 , , 4.9 , , 8.6 , , 3.1 , , 1.1 , , 23.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, , 31 , , 18 , , 5 , , 1 , , 81 , , 106 , , 187 , , 74 , , 19 , , 414 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 4.5 , , 5.9 , , 10.4 , , 4.1 , , 1.1 , , 23.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, , 31 , , 21 , , 7 , , 6 , , 123 , , 145 , , 268 , , 96 , , 15 , , 516 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 5.9 , , 6.9 , , 12.8 , , 4.6 , , 0.7 , , bgcolor="b7e718", 24.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, , 31 , , 15 , , 6 , , 4 , , 82 , , 108 , , 190 , , 55 , , 13 , , 404 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 5.5 , , 7.2 , , 12.7 , , 3.7 , , 0.9 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 26.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, , 31 , , 22 , , 8 , , 11 , , 122 , , 208 , , 330 , , 77 , , 29 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 646 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 5.5 , , 9.5 , , 15.0 , , 3.5 , , 1.3 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 29.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, , 31 , , 20 , , 13 , , 8 , , 143 , , 205 , , 348 , , 80 , , 34 , , 659 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 7.2 , , 10.3 , , 17.4 , , 4.0 , , 1.7 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 33.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, , 31 , , 21 , , 13 , , 6 , , 123 , , 220 , , 343 , , 88 , , 34 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 732 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 5.9 , , 10.5 , , 16.3 , , 4.2 , , 1.6 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 34.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, , 31 , , 13 , , 6 , , 2 , , 82 , , 143 , , 225 , , 54 , , 24 , , 432 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 6.3 , , 11.0 , , 17.3 , , 4.2 , , 1.8 , , 33.2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, , 31 , , 14 , , 6 , , 0 , , 71 , , 135 , , 206 , , 48 , , 16 , , 528 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 5.1 , , 9.6 , , 14.7 , , 3.4 , , 1.1 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 37.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, , 31 , , 10 , , 3 , , 1 , , 18 , , 74 , , 92 , , 22 , , 7 , , 278 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 1.8 , , 7.4 , , 9.2 , , 2.2 , , 0.7 , , 27.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, , 31 , , 23 , , 8 , , 6 , , 75 , , 218 , , 293 , , 85 , , 44 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 890 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 3.3 , , 9.5 , , 12.7 , , 3.7 , , 1.9 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 38.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, , 31 , , 23 , , 9 , , 4 , , 51 , , 241 , , 292 , , 79 , , 34 , , 998 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 2.2 , , 10.5 , , 12.7 , , 3.4 , , 1.5 , , 43.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, , 31 , , 5 , , 0 , , 1 , , 9 , , 32 , , 41 , , 10 , , 8 , , 145 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 1.8 , , 6.4 , , 8.2 , , 2.0 , , 1.6 , , 29.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, , 31 , , 10 , , 0 , , 1 , , 27 , , 83 , , 110 , , 22 , , 18 , , 411 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 2.7 , , 8.3 , , 11.0 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , , 41.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, , 31 , , 11 , , 6 , , 1 , , 39 , , 85 , , 124 , , 26 , , 12 , , 446 , , 0.5 , , 0.1 , , 3.5 , , 7.7 , , 11.3 , , 2.4 , , 1.1 , , 40.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , 31 , , 6 , , 0 , , 1 , , 20 , , 53 , , 73 , , 13 , , 14 , , 177 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 3.3 , , 8.8 , , 12.2 , , 2.2 , , 2.3 , , 29.5 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 271 ! 98 ! 55 ! 1201 ! 2230 ! 3431 ! 946 ! 357 ! 8502 ! 0.4 ! 0.2 ! 4.4 ! 8.2 ! 12.7 ! 3.5 ! 1.3 ! 31.4

Honours and achievements

Team *

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football club championship trophy, awarded each year to the club with the best aggregate performance across the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) seasons. The trophy was inaugur ...

(

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

) 2015 Individual * Doig Medal (Fremantle F.C. Best & Fairest Award): 2009, 2015 *

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, 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-perfo ...

* Geoff Christian Medal: 2009 * Ross Glendinning Medal:

( Round 17),

( Round 18) * AFL Rising Star Nominee:

( Round 14)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandilands, Aaron 1982 births Living people East Fremantle Football Club players Fremantle Football Club players Doig Medal winners All-Australians (AFL) Australian rules footballers from Western Australia People from Mount Barker, Western Australia 21st-century Australian sportsmen