Sam Naismith (born 16 July 1992) was a former Ruckman for the Sydney Swans. He is currently signed to the

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football Association/Leag ...

in the

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).

Early life and junior football

Naismith was born in

Narrabri, New South Wales Narrabri ( ) is a locality and seat of Narrabri Shire local government area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales, Australia on the Namoi River, northwest of Sydney. It sits on the junction of the Kamilaroi Highway and the Newell Highway. ...

but moved to

Gunnedah Gunnedah is a town in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia and is the seat of the Gunnedah Shire local government area. In the the town recorded a population of 9,726. Gunnedah is situated within the Liverpool Plains, a fertile agricultur ...

with his family at a young age. He grew up playing

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and supported the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. He first played

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 ...

at the age of 16 when a school friend convinced him to take part in a few training sessions with the Gunnedah Bulldogs. A year later, as a 17-year-old, he was named joint best and fairest winner of the

Tamworth Australian Football League AFL North West is an Australian rules football competition in the Tamworth, New South Wales, Tamworth and New England (Australia), New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The league began as a "pub competition" in Tamworth in 1997, wit ...

in 2009. By 2011 Naismith was ready to quit Aussie rules and move to Sydney to play

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

until then-

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

coach Paul Roos called him and invited him to join the Swans' talent academy. Naismith accepted the invitation and began playing for the

North Shore Bombers North Shore Australia Football Club, known informally as the North Shore Bombers is an Australian rules football club competing in the Sydney AFL Premier League and based out of the Sydney suburb of St Leonards, New South Wales. Formed in 1903 i ...

in the

Sydney AFL AFL Sydney is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. The AFL Sydney competition comprises 126 teams from 22 clubs which play across seven senior men's divisions, five women's divisions, a Master's Division ...

competition in 2012. By the end of the season he was rookie drafted by the Swans.

AFL & VFL career

Naismith made his debut for the Swans in the final round of 2014 season 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, ...

. Naismith carried the ruck duties alone that day as

Mike Pyke Michael Anthony Patrick Pyke (born 24 March 1984) is a Canadian retired dual-code football player, who was a professional Australian rules footballer with the Sydney Swans. Pyke is the first Canadian national and the first former rugby union ...

and

Tom Derickx Thomas Derickx (born 7 December 1987) is a model, musician and a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Derickx is origin ...

were both injured. On the 6th December 2022 Sam was delisted by the Swans and signed for VFL side Port Melbourne Football Club. He will play for them in 2023.

Statistics

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

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, , , , 10 , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 30 !! 3 !! 4 !! 109 !! 159 !! 268 !! 56 !! 91 !! 765 !! 0.1 !! 0.1 !! 3.6 !! 5.3 !! 8.9 !! 1.9 !! 3.0 !! 25.5

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 ...

():

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naismith, Sam Living people 1994 births Sydney Swans players Australian rules footballers from New South Wales North Shore Australian Football Club players