Todd Goldstein

Todd Goldstein (born 1 July 1988) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), having played the bulk of his career with the North Melbourne Football Club. He was drafted from the Oakleigh Chargers with the 37th selection in the 2006 AFL Draft. In 2015 he became the first-ever player to reach 1000 hitouts in a season. He surpassed Aaron Sandilands for the most hitouts in VFL/AFL history in Round 17, 2021.

Todd Goldstein
Goldstein playing for North Melbourne in 2017
Personal information
Full name	Todd Goldstein
Nickname(s)	Goldy, Bobcat
Date of birth	(1988-07-01) 1 July 1988 (age 37)
Original team(s)	Oakleigh Chargers (TAC Cup)/Trinity Grammar(AGSV)
Draft	No. 37, 2006 National Draft, Kangaroos
Height	201 cm (6 ft 7 in)
Weight	103 kg (227 lb)
Position(s)	Ruckman
Club information
Current club	Essendon
Number	17
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2007–2023	North Melbourne	315 (157)
2024–	Essendon	025 00(3)
Total		340 (160)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2020	Victoria	1 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of round 20, 2025.
Career highlights
Syd Barker Medal: (2015) All-Australian: (2015) Most hitouts in VFL/AFL history
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Early playing career

Goldstein stands at 201 cm and has a basketball background, representing Australia at Under-19 level. He was a member of the Oakleigh Chargers 2006 side which won the TAC Cup.

Goldstein kicked a goal with his first kick for Victorian Football League side the Tasmanian Devils Football Club in 2007.

Goldstein played his junior basketball at Balwyn Blazers and Nunawading Spectres. At one stage he harboured ambitions to play college basketball in America.^[1] He focussed on football in 2006, playing for his school team and Oakleigh Chargers, he nominated for the AFL draft in that same year. He was eventually drafted by North Melbourne at pick 37 in the 2006 AFL draft.^[2]

AFL career

Goldstein (centre) playing for Essendon in 2025

Goldstein was selected to debut for North Melbourne in their Round 15 clash with the Port Adelaide Power at AAMI Stadium in 2008. On debut, he collected four disposals and won 13 hitouts. In the next round, Goldstein kicked two goals against the Collingwood Magpies.

Goldstein played one of the best games of his career to date against the Melbourne Demons, in the Round 19, 2009 match at Etihad Stadium. He finished with 5 goals, 25 hitouts and helped his teammates to a 10-goal win.^[3] He was awarded 2 Brownlow Medal votes for this game.^[4]

In 2010, he played in 21 of 22 games for North Melbourne, and often had to ruck for long periods due to injuries to the Kangaroos other ruckmen, Hamish McIntosh, David Hale and Drew Petrie.^[5]

In 2011, he had taken over the number one ruck duties at North Melbourne in the absence of McIntosh and began to establish himself as one of the leagues premier big men. In the round 10 match against the Sydney Swans, he set a career best record of 53 hitouts which he equalled again only 4 weeks later.^[6]

By 2015, he had established himself as an elite ruckman, ranking as the number 1 ruck in the competition, and number 4 player overall. In a poll by AFL.com in May, 81% of respondents considered him the best current ruck in the AFL.^[7] His season was rewarded with the Syd Barker Medal, as North Melbourne's best-and-fairest player.^[8] Also in the 2015 season, Goldstein became the first player in VFl/AFL history to win 1000 hitouts in a single season,^[9] and in round 12 against Greater Western Sydney, broke the record of most hitouts in a single game with 80 total.^[10]

Goldstein moved to Essendon as a free agent in October 2023.^[11]

Statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of the 2024 season^[12]

Legend

G	Goals	K	Kicks	D	Disposals	T	Tackles
B	Behinds	H	Handballs	M	Marks	H/O	Hit-outs

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals								Averages (per game)								Votes
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	H/O	G	B	K	H	D	M	T	H/O
2008	North Melbourne	22	3	2	0	8	8	16	6	4	29	0.7	0.0	2.7	2.7	5.3	2.0	1.3	9.7	0
2009	North Melbourne	22	13	9	4	45	59	104	36	18	179	0.7	0.3	3.5	4.5	8.0	2.8	1.4	13.8	2
2010	North Melbourne	22	21	10	12	123	121	244	90	70	367	0.5	0.6	5.9	5.8	11.6	4.3	3.3	17.5	0
2011	North Melbourne	22	21	13	6	151	137	288	73	92	741	0.6	0.3	7.2	6.5	13.7	3.5	4.4	35.3	6
2012	North Melbourne	22	21	2	4	114	143	257	56	53	663	0.1	0.2	5.4	6.8	12.2	2.7	2.5	31.6	6
2013	North Melbourne	22	22	13	4	113	150	263	66	65	822	0.6	0.2	5.1	6.8	12.0	3.0	3.0	37.4	7
2014	North Melbourne	22	24	10	7	98	190	288	52	114	838	0.4	0.3	4.1	7.9	12.0	2.2	4.8	34.9	3
2015	North Melbourne	22	24	11	10	157	195	352	100	102	1058	0.4	0.4	6.5	8.1	14.6	4.1	4.2	44.1	18
2016	North Melbourne	22	22	20	7	128	175	303	69	69	804	0.9	0.3	5.8	7.9	13.7	3.5	3.5	36.5	11
2017	North Melbourne	22	19	12	6	94	161	255	54	55	576	0.6	0.3	4.9	8.5	13.4	2.8	2.9	30.3	0
2018	North Melbourne	22	22	12	5	139	181	320	74	63	783	0.5	0.2	6.3	8.2	14.5	3.4	2.9	35.6	6
2019	North Melbourne	22	22	5	7	139	230	369	62	38	737	0.2	0.3	6.3	10.5	16.8	2.8	1.7	33.5	5
2020[a]	North Melbourne	22	17	6	6	105	149	254	33	35	472	0.4	0.4	6.2	8.8	15.0	1.9	2.1	27.8	5
2021	North Melbourne	22	22	12	4	160	154	314	80	42	655	0.5	0.2	7.3	7.0	14.3	3.6	1.9	29.8	2
2022	North Melbourne	22	22	16	6	106	180	286	58	42	527	0.7	0.3	4.8	8.2	13.0	2.6	1.9	24.0	0
2023	North Melbourne	22	20	4	2	99	161	260	45	38	584	0.2	0.1	5.0	8.0	13.0	2.3	1.9	29.2	0
2024	Essendon	17	14	2	1	44	99	143	25	26	344	0.1	0.1	3.1	7.1	10.2	1.8	1.9	24.6	0
Career			329	159	91	1823	2492	4315	979	927	10181	0.5	0.3	5.5	7.6	13.1	3.0	2.8	31.0	71

Personal life

Son of Andrea and Jeff, and brother of Luke and Kye, Goldstein grew up in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne. His schooling involved attending Trinity Grammar School (in secondary school), and Preshil (in primary school).

Goldstein is currently studying a juris doctor degree at Deakin University.^[13] He had previously completed a Bachelor of Applied Management.^[14]

Notes

1. The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.