Jason Saddington (born 23 October 1979) is a retired

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 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 ...

. He was recruited as the number 11 draft pick in the

1997 AFL Draft The 1997 AFL Draft was held at the conclusion of the 1997 Australian Football League (AFL) season. A Pre-season Draft and the second Rookie Draft were held prior to the 1998 season. It is considered to have been one of the most successful draf ...

from

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team that currently competes in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. History Inaugural playing squad (1992) Honours *Premiers (2): 2002, 2013 *Runners-up (6): 199 ...

Career

Sydney

Jason made his AFL debut for the

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 Austral ...

in Round 1, 1998 against

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

. He had a consistent debut season in 1998 and was nominated for the Norwich Rising Star award that year. He kicked 4 goals against the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey ...

in Round 4 of 2004 in one of his best matches of his career, and was noted as a consistent rebounding backman with a strong mark. However, a serious knee injury in Round 10, 2004 against the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

interrupted his career and the very slow process of recovery resulted in Jason being traded to the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

at the end of the 2005 season. He played 142 games in eight seasons at the Swans.

Carlton

Saddington debuted for Carlton against his old club, the Sydney Swans, in Round 3, 2006. He played six consecutive games, scoring two goals, before his season was again ended by the recurring knee injury. It was at this late stage that Saddington was told for the first time that the medical staff at Sydney Swans were aware of complications that had resulted from his first knee injury and had withheld this information from him and also from his new club. He had a further operation, and missed the rest of the 2006 season. Fully recovered, Saddington played very good football for Carlton's , the

Northern Bullants The Northern Bullants are a semi-professional Australian rules football club that currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The club, which is based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, plays its home games at Preston City Ov ...

, in the early rounds of season 2007 and played his first senior game of the

2007 AFL Season The 2007 AFL season was the 111th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixt ...

at the MCG against Magpies in Round 7 on Saturday 12 May 2007 taking a team high total of 12 marks. He played his 150th AFL game against the

Carrara Stadium Carrara Stadium (also known as People First Stadium under naming rights) is a stadium on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Carrara, Queensland, Carrara. The stadium is primarily used for A ...

on the Gold Coast the following week. With the replacement of coach Denis Pagan with Brett Ratten, Saddington spent more time as a part-time forward later in the season. Saddington played only two games for Carlton in 2008, both late in the season. He won the Northern Bullants'

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 ...

award, the Laurie Hill Trophy, for his strong season at VFL level during the season. Jason was offered a position in an

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

initiative to assist homeless people.

Post-AFL career

Saddington officially retired from the

on 13 October 2008. He continued to play on with the

as a VFL-listed player in 2009, where he was a part of the club's losing grand final team. In 2012, Saddington played for the Balmain Dockers in the Sydney AFL competition alongside premiership players Nick Davis and Chad Fletcher. In 2014, Saddington coached the NSW/ACT Rams and was named Coach of the 2014 NAB AFL U18 All Australian Team. On 23 October 2014 Saddington was announced as new Academy Coach by the AFL. In January 2020, Saddington was appointed as the Greater Western Sydney reserves team coach for the 2020 NEAFL season. However, the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, meaning he did not coach any games.

References

External links

*
Jason Saddington Profile in Blueseum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saddington, Jason 1979 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Carlton Football Club players Sydney Swans players Northern Bullants players Eastern Ranges players Balmain Australian Football Club players