Josh Bootsma (born 22 February 1993) 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 listed with in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL). He previously played 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 ...

(AFL), but had his contract terminated midway through the 2014 season, for breaching the club's and the AFL's codes of conduct.

Background and junior career

Bootsma was born in 1993 into a football-oriented family, with his father

Brad Brad may refer to: * Brad (given name), a masculine given name Places * Brad, Hunedoara, a city in Hunedoara County, Romania * Brad, a village in Berești-Bistrița Commune, Bacău County, Romania * Brad, a village in Filipeni, Bacău, Romania * ...

having played 163 WAFL matches for South Fremantle and 23 AFL matches for

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2011, Bootsma started the year playing for his local club North Albany, before joining WAFL side South Fremantle mid season. He went on to play 13 colts games for South Fremantle, including the premiership. Bootsma's 13 games for the Bulldogs saw his 2011 AFL draft prospects rise greatly, with him being touted by

Kevin Sheehan Kevin Vincent Sheehan OAM (born 1 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer for Geelong and the current Australian Football League (AFL) National Talent and International Manager, a member of the AFL football operations sub-committe ...

as a potential top 30 pick. After attracting the attention of several AFL clubs, Bootsma was drafted by the

with its first round selection in the 2011 AFL National draft (No. 22 overall). At the time he was drafted, Bootsma was in the process of completing an apprenticeship as an electrician.de Bolfo, Tony (24 November 2011
Blues stocks get a Bootsma
. Carlton Football Club. He was given guernsey number 21.

AFL career

After starting the 2012 season playing for the

Northern Blues 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

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

, Bootsma made his AFL debut in

Round 6 Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * Having no sharp corners, as an ellipse, circle, or sphere * Rounding, reducing the number of significant figures in a number * Round number, ending with one or more zeroes * Round (crypto ...

against , as a late replacement. On 3 June 2014, Bootsma's contract with was terminated for breaching the club's and the AFL's Codes of Conduct, related to inappropriate behaviour on social media. He returned to play for in the WAFL for the remainder of the 2014 season,Alex Malcolm (26 June 2014)
"Bootsma set to resume career with Peel Thunder"
– AFL. Retrieved 26 June 2014. and played there until 2016.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bootsma, Josh Australian rules footballers from Western Australia 1993 births Living people North Albany Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players Northern Bullants players Carlton Football Club players Sportspeople from Albany, Western Australia Australian people of Dutch descent 21st-century Australian sportsmen