| Tom Williamson | |
| Birth Date: | 12 December 1998 |
| Originalteam: | North Ballarat Rebels (TAC Cup) |
| Draftpick: | No. 61, 2016 national draft |
| Debutdate: | Round 3, 2017 |
| Debutstadium: | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
| Height: | 190 cm |
| Weight: | 85 kg |
| Position: | Defender |
| Years1: | 2017–2022 |
| Games Goals1: | 44 (4) |
| Statsend: | 2022 |
Tom Williamson (born 12 December 1998) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Hailing from Ararat, Williamson played TAC Cup football with North Ballarat until 2016. At the draft combine that year he scored particularly well in fitness indicators including placing first in the agility test and finishing second in the 3 km time trial, and he was drafted to the AFL by with the club's fifth selection and the sixty-first overall in the 2016 national draft.[1]
Williamson quickly made his AFL debut, in round 3 of the 2017 season in the fifteen point victory against at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[2] He recorded fifteen disposals and five tackles for the match.[3] He managed 15 games in his debut season, and finished the season with stat averages of 12 disposals, 3 marks, 2 tackles and 1 spoil.[4]
Williamson saw little football over the following two seasons, with back injuries limiting him to only two senior matches in 2018 and 2019.[5] Nevertheless, he earned a two-year contract extension, signifying him as one of Carlton's long-term prospects. He made a return to regular senior football in 2020, playing 15 of Carlton's 17 games in the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season,[6] then played 11 of 22 games in 2021.
After playing only one game as an unused medical substitute in early 2022, Williamson took a leave of absence from the club in June due to undisclosed personal reasons, before retiring altogether one month later.[7] Through his career, Williamson played primarily as a dashing and rebounding half-back and occasional wingman, noted for a long and accurate field kick.[8]
It was reported in October 2023 that his leave of absence was amid a criminal investigation into his behaviour outside of his career. Williamson plead guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to a series of charges including “stalking a woman with the intention of causing her harm or fear.”
After his departure from Carlton, Williamson signed a deal to play with North Melbourne's reserves for the rest of the 2022 season.[9]