Sydney Stack (born 28 April 2000) is a professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played junior representative football with Perth in the WAFL and represented Western Australia at national championships at under 18 level where he was named All-Australian in 2018. After being undrafted in 2018, Stack was signed by Richmond as a supplemental selection in 2019 and made his AFL debut in round 3, 2019.
Early life and junior football
Stack was born in Northam, Western Australia, a country town 97 kilometres east-northeast of Perth. One of seven children, Stack endured a difficult childhood including living under the care of many different relatives as a result of substance abuse, mental illness and criminal convictions in his direct family. His father was jailed for criminal offences in 2004 and after moving with his mother between homes in Northam, Perth, Bunbury and Koongamia, he returned to Northam at age six where he was raised under the care of his aunt. There he played junior football at the local Barons and Federals Football Clubs in Northam. He relocated to Koongamia to live under the care of his brother at age 11, before shifting again to live with his sister at age 12 and then return to Northam under his Aunt's care at age 13. He remained there for three years, returning to local football before moving yet again at age 16 into the care of other relatives while sporadically attending high school at Northam Senior High School through the end of year 11 classes. He continued to experience housing uncertainty during his late teenage years, including living with extended family members, with his sister in Bunbury, with friends in Darwin and in a home for country footballers in Perth. At that time, Stack played Colts football for Perth in the junior ranks of the WAFL including in 2017 where he held averages of 18 disposals per game. Later that year he represented Western Australia at the 2017 2017 AFL Under 18 Championships. Despite being younger than most of those selected, Stack earned a spot in each of the side's four matches at the tournament, kicking two goals. He also travelled to New Zealand as part of a junior Australian team that played the New Zealand national senior team in an exhibition match in April 2017. At the end of the 2017 season Stack played in an under 17s exhibition match at Simonds Stadium in Geelong.
After earning selection to the Western Australian squad competing at the 2018 AFL Under 18 Championships, Stack was left out of the state's round 1 side for missing a compulsory training session the day after getting into a physical altercation over family disputes at a birthday celebration. He spent just one match on the sidelines however, earning a place in the tournaments second round where he was one of the state's best players with 23 disposals and four clearances. In a later match against Vic Country, Stack recorded 22 disposals, thanks largely to a prolific second half performance. At the end of the tournament Stack was named All-Australian after he held an average of 21.3 disposals per match playing as a midfielder.
In 2018 he also played three senior-level WAFL matches for Perth, and while playing at Colts level he received the club best and fairest award and was named in the WAFL Colts Team of the Year.
Despite strong on-field performances that year, Stack had recurring off-field issues that saw him forced out of the AFL Academy and Western Australian state academy for disciplinary reasons.
AFL recruitment
Prior to the 2018 AFL draft Stack was lauded for his ability to apply on-ball pressure, for his composure in traffic and his clean ball use and well as his physical traits of speed and acceleration.
In a late-October mock draft, ESPN predicted Stack to be taken with the 28th pick in the upcoming AFL draft, while in their draft-week predictions, Draft Central and Fox Footy forecast Stack to be selected with the 36th and 53rd overall picks respectively.
Despite those predictions, Stack was ultimately passed on by all 18 AFL clubs at the national and rookie drafts in 2018 due to concerns over his fitness and dedication to training standards.
