Brenton James Sanderson (born 27 February 1974) is a former

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 ...

player and is the former senior coach of the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

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).

Career

Early career

Originally from

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, South Australia, Sanderson moved from Sturt to Adelaide as one of their 10 concession picks. While at Sturt he injured his right leg and had to learn to kick left footed, this subsequently became his primary kicking foot. He finally made his debut in 1992 but had limited opportunities and played just 6 games until he moved to . He played just 4 games with the club following two

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

injuries during the year, but Sanderson once said he learned a lot about the right attitude to preparation and training, as he learned from living with

Nathan Buckley Nathan Charles Buckley (born 26 July 1972) is a former professional Australian rules football coach, player and commentator. He is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the top 50 players of all time. Buckley won the inaugural Rising S ...

Geelong

In 1995 Sanderson moved to and reinvented himself as a half-back flanker, generating a lot of run out of defence. He had his best season in 2001, when he took out the

Carji Greeves Medal The Carji Greeves Medal is a name given in recent decades to an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) adjudged best and fairest for the Geelong Football Club for the season. The voting system has changed a number of times. Fo ...

as well as earning

International rules International rules football (; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international represe ...

selection. In 2005 before the finals series, Sanderson announced he would be retiring from AFL football. His last match was the semi-final loss to 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 ...

at the SCG.

Coaching career

Port Adelaide Football Club assistant coach (2005-2007)

Immediately after Sanderson's retirement from playing he moved back to Adelaide to become an assistant coach at

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where it is nicknamed the ...

in 2005 under senior coach Mark Williams,

Geelong Football Club assistant coach (2007-2011)

Sanderson then headed back to

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

to become an assistant coach under senior coach Mark Thompson in 2007.

Adelaide Football Club senior coach (2011-2014)

On Monday 19 September 2011, Sanderson was appointed senior coach of the

ahead of red hot favourite Scott Burns and premiership captain

Mark Bickley Mark Alan Bickley (born 4 August 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Bickley was a player for the Crows from 1991 until 2003, captaining the team to bo ...

. Sanderson replaced caretaker senior coach

, who replaced Neil Craig after Craig resigned in the middle of the 2011 season. After getting to within a goal of reaching the

AFL Grand Final The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. Prior to 1990 it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league was then known as the Victorian Football Leag ...

in 2012, the Crows underachieved in the ensuing two years, finishing 11th and 10th respectively and therefore failing to make the finals. As a result, on 17 September 2014 (almost three years to the day since he was appointed) Sanderson was sacked as senior coach of the Adelaide Crows.Crows, coach part ways

official website, 17 September 2014 He left the Crows having won 39 of his 69 games in charge – a 56.5 per cent success rate – the second-best of any Crows coach to date. Sanderson was then replaced by Phil Walsh as Adelaide Football Club senior coach.

AFL National Academy Head coach (2015-2016)

Sanderson was Head Coach at the AFL National Academy from 2015 to 2016.

Collingwood Football Club assistant coach (2016-2021)

In 2016, Sanderson was appointed as a Senior Assistant Coach at the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...

under senior coach

, overseeing forward line and ball movement. Sanderson left the Collingwood Football Club at the end of the 2021 season.

Personal life

Sanderson was at the Sari Club, just hours before the

2002 Bali bombings The 2002 Bali bombings were a series of terrorist attacks on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attacks killed 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, and people ...

killed 202 people. He is also a qualified pilot.

Statistics

Playing statistics

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1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 36 , , 4 , , 3 , , 2 , , 25 , , 26 , , 51 , , 9 , , 3 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 6.3 , , 6.5 , , 12.8 , , 2.3 , , 0.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 36 , , 2 , , 1 , , 1 , , 11 , , 13 , , 24 , , 7 , , 2 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 5.5 , , 6.5 , , 12.0 , , 3.5 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 17 , , 4 , , 1 , , 0 , , 20 , , 17 , , 37 , , 9 , , 3 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 5.0 , , 4.3 , , 9.3 , , 2.3 , , 0.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 13 , , 2 , , 0 , , 60 , , 57 , , 117 , , 42 , , 7 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 4.6 , , 4.4 , , 9.0 , , 3.2 , , 0.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 21 , , 2 , , 2 , , 224 , , 124 , , 348 , , 101 , , 23 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 10.7 , , 5.9 , , 16.6 , , 4.8 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 21 , , 8 , , 6 , , 205 , , 81 , , 286 , , 84 , , 29 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 9.8 , , 3.9 , , 13.6 , , 4.0 , , 1.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 22 , , 5 , , 3 , , 291 , , 98 , , 389 , , 102 , , 33 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 13.2 , , 4.5 , , 17.7 , , 4.6 , , 1.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 15 , , 4 , , 5 , , 204 , , 55 , , 259 , , 81 , , 14 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 13.6 , , 3.7 , , 17.3 , , 5.4 , , 0.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 23 , , 1 , , 0 , , 247 , , 102 , , 349 , , 107 , , 29 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.7 , , 4.4 , , 15.2 , , 4.7 , , 1.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 22 , , 2 , , 1 , , 240 , , 98 , , 338 , , 104 , , 29 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 10.9 , , 4.5 , , 15.4 , , 4.7 , , 1.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 12 , , 1 , , 1 , , 105 , , 40 , , 145 , , 48 , , 24 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 8.8 , , 3.3 , , 12.1 , , 4.0 , , 2.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 22 , , 2 , , 0 , , 264 , , 120 , , 384 , , 116 , , 38 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 12.0 , , 5.5 , , 17.5 , , 5.3 , , 1.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 17 , , 1 , , 0 , , 147 , , 74 , , 221 , , 76 , , 21 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 8.6 , , 4.4 , , 13.0 , , 4.5 , , 1.2 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 27 , , 11 , , 1 , , 2 , , 93 , , 77 , , 170 , , 64 , , 20 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 8.5 , , 7.0 , , 15.5 , , 5.8 , , 1.8 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 209 ! 34 ! 23 ! 2136 ! 982 ! 3118 ! 950 ! 275 ! 0.2 ! 0.1 ! 10.2 ! 4.7 ! 14.9 ! 4.5 ! 1.3

Head coaching record

:Brenton Sanderson's coaching profile at AFL Tables
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanderson, Brenton Adelaide Football Club players Collingwood Football Club players Geelong Football Club players Carji Greeves Medal winners Sturt Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Adelaide 1974 births Living people Adelaide Football Club coaches