Adam Saad (born 23 July 1994) is an

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 currently playing for 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 ...

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 previously played for the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

and the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

Early career

As a junior, Saad first played for West Coburg Football Club in the Essendon District Football League. He was part of the club's under-18s premiership in 2010, where he was coached by

Phil Cleary Philip Ronald Cleary (born 8 December 1952) is an Australian political and sport commentator. He is a former Australian rules footballer who played 205 games at the Coburg Football Club, before serving as the member for Division of Wills, Wills ...

. Saad joined

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

in 2013 following a

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

stint with the

Calder Cannons The Calder Cannons is an Australian rules football club from Melbourne, Australia. The club competes in the Talent League, the Victorian Statewide Under-18s competition, and fields squads in the Under-15s, Under-16s and Under-18s. The club was f ...

. After appearing to struggle between Senior and Development level football, he established himself as one of the VFL's leading small defenders, winning the Coburg

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 in 2014 sharing in a tie with Daniel Venditti, and was named in the 2014 VFL Team of the Year. His strong form and State Combine testing led him to being drafted to the Gold Coast Suns with pick 25 in the 2015 rookie draft.

AFL career

Saad made his debut for the

in round 1 of the 2015 season and kicked one goal in a defeat to . In round 5, 2015, Saad was nominated for the Rising Star after his team's win over the

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 ...

where he had 26 touches. Following the 2017 season, Saad requested and was granted a trade to Essendon, who sent their

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 ...

second round draft pick to the Gold Coast in return. At Essendon, Saad showed his durability by only missing one game in three seasons. He slotted into the backline, used his pace to full effort, and was inventive in moving the ball forward. Saad claimed third place in the club's Crichton Medal count in 2019. Saad requested a trade to after the 2020 season, and he was traded on 11 November. Saad kicked his first goal for Carlton in the Blues' round 7,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

win against his old side Essendon. Through his career, Saad has been known for his dashing pace, and propensity to run long distances with the ball, frequently bouncing it. He led the league in bounces in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022; in both 2018 and 2022, his tally of bounces more than doubled his nearest rival. As of 2024, he holds the record for highest average running bounces per game since statistics were first recorded in 1999, with 3.46 per game. He has a long left-foot kick, and during his time at Carlton, the spectators would shout "woof!" whenever he took a kick; he was the fifth long-kicking left footed Carlton player to receive this traditional treatment, which had originated with Val Perovic in the 1980s.

Personal life

Saad is a practising

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. He is of Lebanese descent.

Statistics

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

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 ...

, , , 42 , , 16 , , 1 , , 2 , , 121 , , 151 , , 272 , , 66 , , 44 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 7.6 , , 9.4 , , 17.0 , , 4.1 , , 2.8 , , 3 , - ,

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 ...

, , , 42 , , 10 , , 0 , , 2 , , 75 , , 76 , , 151 , , 36 , , 25 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 7.5 , , 7.6 , , 15.1 , , 3.6 , , 2.5 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , 42 , , 22 , , 2 , , 7 , , 194 , , 171 , , 365 , , 78 , , 50 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 8.8 , , 7.8 , , 16.6 , , 3.5 , , 2.3 , , 1 , - ,

, , , 42 , , 22 , , 0 , , 3 , , 199 , , 178 , , 377 , , 56 , , 55 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 9.0 , , 8.1 , , 17.1 , , 2.5 , , 2.5 , , 3 , - ,

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 ...

, , , 42 , , 22 , , 3 , , 0 , , 239 , , 149 , , 388 , , 62 , , 75 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 10.9 , , 6.8 , , 17.6 , , 2.8 , , 3.4 , , 0 , - ,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, , , , 42 , , 17 , , 2 , , 1 , , 202 , , 119 , , 321 , , 49 , , 34 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 11.9 , , 7.0 , , 18.9 , , 2.9 , , 2.0 , , 2 , - ,

, , , 42 , , 22 , , 2 , , 6 , , 311 , , 113 , , 424 , , 72 , , 39 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 14.1 , , 5.1 , , 19.3 , , 3.3 , , 1.8 , , 0 , - ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 42 , , 21 , , 0 , , 0 , , 323 , , 136 , , 459 , , 100 , , 47 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 15.4 , , 6.5 , , 22 , , 4.8 , , 2.2 , , 3 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 152 ! 10 ! 21 ! 1664 ! 1093 ! 2757 ! 519 ! 369 ! 0.1 ! 0.1 ! 10.9 ! 7.2 ! 18.1 ! 3.4 ! 2.4 ! 12 Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saad, Adam Living people 1994 births Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Essendon Football Club players Gold Coast Football Club players Coburg Football Club players Australian Muslims Australian people of Lebanese descent Carlton Football Club players People from Brunswick, Victoria All-Australians (AFL)