Jake Aarts (born 8 December 1994) is a professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played state-league football with Richmond's VFL side before being drafted to the club's AFL list at the 2019 rookie draft in November 2018. Aarts made his AFL debut in round 5 of the 2020 season. Early life and state-league football Aarts played junior and senior local football at the Beaconsfield Football Club in his teenage years but was overlooked by junior representative TAC Cup clubs. In 2013, he followed former Beaconsfield coach Austinn Jones to the Bendigo Football Club when Jones became the club's VFL head coach. He remained with Bendigo for 32 games over two years playing as a wing and half-forward, but when the club folded at the end the 2014 season, Aarts joined the 2015 VFL-only playing squad for the AFL club 's reserves team. There he played alongside the club's non-selected AFL-listed players for three years before being selected to serve in the team's leadership group for the 2018 season. Aarts finished 2018 having played 16 matches and holding averages of 13 disposals, four tackles and one goal a game, and earned an invitation to the Victorian state draft combine. By the end of the 2018 season, Aarts had played 49 matches with Richmond's reserves and a total of 81 state-league games. He attended secondary school at St. Francis Xavier College, Beaconsfield AFL career 2019 season Aarts was drafted by with the club's first pick and the 16th selection overall in the 2019 rookie draft. He began his first AFL-listed season by playing reserves grade practice matches with the VFL team in March 2020, including with a three-goal haul in the last of those outings. Aarts missed the opening round of the VFL season with injury but by the end of April was labelled "ready for an AFL opportunity" by reserves coach Craig McRae. In mid-May, Aarts was named a round 8 non-playing AFL emergency following a strong three-goal performance in the VFL a week earlier. He was rested for one VFL match later that month while dealing with general soreness and missed a further match in July with a minor calf injury. He turned in an excellent VFL performance in early August, notching 24 disposals and three goals in a showing that saw him named as an AFL emergency