Introduction and Early Life

Aaron Sandilands is a professional Australian Rules footballer that plays for the Fremantle Football Club. He was born on December 6, 1982 and he is reputed to be the tallest player in the history of the Australian Football League (AFL). He is approximately 2.11 metres tall and weighs 122kg. He is from a town in West Australia known as Mount Baker and plays for Fremantle as a ruckman in the jersey number 31. He was drafted in the 2002 rookie draft selection as pick number 33. Prior to this selection he was playing in the East Fremantle team in the West Australia Football League. Aaron made his debut appearance in the AFL in the first round of the 2003 season in the encounter against Adelaide Football club at the football park grounds.

Aaron Sandilands Professional Career

Aaron Sandilands was elevated to the senior team in 2003 after he was picked at the rookie draft of 2002. He had a good debut season that year, playing a total of nineteen games and earning a nomination for the AFL Rising Star Award. He also received a Brownlow vote for his exceptional performance against the Brisbane Lions in the fourteenth round of the season. Aaron had an outstanding performance in the match that happened to be Fremantle Dockers first ever appearance in the league finals against Essendon Bombers. He was able to secure a total of 41 hit outs in that game.

From his first season in the AFL, Aaron continued to improve his performances on a consistent basis for the next three seasons. His rankings improved considerably with each passing season and he progressed from being ranked sixth in total hit outs for his first three seasons to second in the entire AFL in the 2006 season. In spite of these outstanding performances that he exhibited, it did not always translate to victories for his club. Sandilands had a very bad experience in the sixth round of 2006 when he had a serious injury to his jaw. He had a broken jaw in the match against West Coast Eagles where he clashed with Mark Seaby. The incident triggered an AFL investigation after which no charges were laid to any of them.

AFL Career Achievements

Aaron Sandilands has won several awards and has been named in the All Australian Team about three times in 2008 where he was on the interchange bench, also in 2009 where he was the only ruckman in the team and in 2010 as the key ruckman. He has also won the Fremantle football club awards about three times. He won the club’s best and fairest award in 2009, and came second in the best and fairest awards in 2008 and also won it in 2010. He has been experiencing what most people are referring to as career high achievements in this current season of 2011 until he sustained a toe injury recently. During the first eight games of 2011 season, he was averaging about 38.3 hit outs per game which is the highest in his career so far. He has also recorded about 18.5 disposals this year which is considered to be his career high.

Sandilands has also had his own fair share of injuries in this current 2011 season. He was earlier poked in the eye which led to him having limited vision from that eye. It was ascertained not to be a serious injury after he consulted an eye specialist. He also injured his toe recently but the good thing is that he does not have to go through surgery. He is meant to be out of play for four weeks to allow for proper healing.