Sam Collins (Australian footballer)
Sam Collins is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the in the Australian Football League.
Originally from Donvale, Collins is the youngest of four children and attended Whitefriars College, graduating in 2012. As a junior, Collins played for the Donvale Football Club. He played for the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup Under 18s competition before moving onto the Box Hill Hawks Football Club in the Victorian Football League. Collins was a member of the Box Hill Hawks leadership team from age 19. He was recruited as a mature age player to Fremantle with their third selection, 55th overall, in the 2015 AFL draft. He has made his AFL debut in Round 10 of the 2016 AFL season, against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium, after playing well for Fremantle's reserves team, Peel Thunder, in the West Australian Football League.
Collins was delisted by Fremantle at the conclusion of the 2017 season, in the same year in which he won the Dudley Tuckey Medal for Peel Thunder's Best and Fairest player and was named in the WAFL team of the year. He was not drafted by another AFL club in the 2017 AFL draft, and returned to Melbourne to play for Werribee Football Club. He won the Werribee Football Club Best and Fairest in 2018, was named in the VFL team of the year and came equal third in the JJ Liston Medal for the competitions best player.
The signed Collins as a mature aged state-league concession prior to the 2018 AFL draft, and will play for the club from 2019 onwards.
