Laitham Vandermeer (born 3 February 1999) is an

Australian rules footballer 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 ...

, who plays for 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 ...

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). He was recruited by the

with the 37th draft pick in the 2018 AFL draft.

Early Football

Vandermeer participated in the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian football to children aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective program. It has incre ...

program at

Mooroopna, Victoria Mooroopna is a town located north of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is on the banks of the Goulburn River (Victoria), Goulburn River opposite the larger town of Shepparton. The Midland Highway (Victoria), Midland Highw ...

Vandermeer played for the

Murray Bushrangers The Murray Bushrangers is an Australian rules football team playing in Victorian statewide under-18s competition, presently known as the Talent League, since 1993 based in Wangaratta. The team trains on Norm Minns Oval, Wangaratta. The Under 1 ...

for 3 seasons and Vic Country in the

AFL Under 18 Championships The AFL National Championships is an annual Australian national underage representative Australian rules football tournament. Since taking over as national governing body in 1995, the AFL has gradually restructured the competition into a primar ...

for 1 season. Prior he played with

Mooroopna Football Club The Mooroopna Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Cats'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in the rural town of Mooroopna, Victoria. Mooroopna currently competes in the Goulburn Valley Football League (GVFL), of which ...

and his school side at

Xavier College Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878. The ...

, with future teammate

Bailey Smith Bailey Smith (born 7 December 2000) is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Geelong Football Club. Smith was recruited by the with the 7th draft pick in the 2018 AFL draft, making his debut in the 2019 AFL season. He r ...

AFL career

2020 season: Debut

Vandermeer played 15 games for the Bulldogs'

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 ...

(VFL) side in 2019, before breaking into the

(AFL) team in 2020. Vandermeer debuted in the Bulldogs' loss to the

St Kilda Saints The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...

in the second round of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...

. Vandermeer kicked his first goal on his debut, as well as collecting 10 disposals, 3 marks and 2 tackles. Vandermeer suffered a hamstring injury in the Bulldogs' 11 point loss to the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Kardinia Park in South Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

in the 14th round of the

, and was ruled out for the rest of the home and away season. Vandermeer won the Western Bulldogs Chris Grant Best First Year Player award, after playing 12 games in the

and kicking 9 goals.

2021 season

Vandermeer started out the season strongly, kicking 2 goals and collecting 14 disposals in the ' opening round win over .

Statistics

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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 ...

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Honours & Achievements

* Chris Grant Best First Year Player: 2020

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vandermeer, Laitham 1999 births Living people Western Bulldogs players Murray Bushrangers players Mooroopna Football Club players People educated at Xavier College Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 21st-century Australian sportsmen People from Mooroopna Australian people of Dutch descent