round 9's win over the . He remained in the senior side for the rest of the regular season, including as the game's equal-leading goalscorer in a round 18 win over despite a minor shoulder injury sustained during the match. Aarts held his place into the first week of the finals, contributing eight disposals and three tackles in a qualifying final loss to the . It was to be his last AFL match of the season however, with omitted from the semi-final side but named instead as a non-playing emergency across each of the club's final three matches including for the grand final victory over . For his debut season in which he featured in 14 of a possible 21 matches, Aarts earned equal-14th place in the club's best and fairest count. 2021 season Ahead of the 2021 season, Aarts switched guernsey numbers, adopting the number 16 last worn by Shaun Hampson in 2017. Player profile Aarts plays as a small forward and half-forward, adept at tackling and applying defensive pressure on rebounding opposition defenders while also being relatively strong at ball-winning in contest situations compared to most small forwards. In his junior years, his time with Bendigo and his early seasons with Richmond's VFL side, Aarts played as an inside midfielder, before making a move to the forward line under the direction of Richmond VFL coach Craig McRae. AFL statistics Updated to the end of round 23, 2022. |- | 2019 || || 39 | 0 || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — |- | 2020 || || 39 | 14 || 14 || 5 || 71 || 64 || 135 || 31 || 33 || 1.0 || 0.4 || 5.1 || 4.6 || 9.6 || 2.2 || 2.4 || 1 |- | 2021 || || 16 | 21 || 18 || 12 || 122 || 100 || 222 || 53 || 53 || 0.9 || 0.6 || 5.8 || 4.8 || 10.6 || 2.5 || 2.5 || 0 |- | 2022 || || 16 | 7 || 2 || 2 || 20 || 29 || 49 || 6 || 14 || 0.3 || 0.3 || 2.9 || 4.1 || 7.0 || 0.9 || 2.0 || 0 |- class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3| Career ! 42 ! 34