James Tsitas

James Tsitas (born 3 March 1995) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Early career
Originally from Geelong, Victoria, he played for Grovedale Football Club as a junior, before joining the TAC Cup representative side Geelong Falcons. He would go undrafted in the 2013 AFL draft and would sign with the North Ballarat Football Club in the VFL. He would play two seasons for the Roosters until joining the Geelong Football Club VFL side for the 2016 VFL season, where he would win the club Best and Fairest the following season.

For the 2020 season, he would sign for Williamstown Football Club, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of the 2020 VFL season, he would instead sign with Woodville-West Torrens in the SANFL for the 2020. This would culminate in Tsitas being awarded the Magarey Medal in 2021, as well as 2 premierships in 2020 and 2021.

On the back of these performances, Tsitas would be selected in the 2021 AFL draft as part of the Pre-season supplemental selection period by the Gold Coast Suns.

AFL career
After joining the Suns for the 2022 AFL season, Tsitas would spend the majority of the season in the VFL, before being selected to make his AFL debut in the Round 16 match against Collingwood.

Tsitas kicked his first career goal in Round 9 of the 2023 AFL season after he was subbed into the game. He ended up kicking 2 goals in a 70 point thrashing against the, this is ’s biggest win outside of Queensland. This was also Tsitas’ first win in the AFL.

He would only play 4 games in the 2023 season, all coming on as the sub. However, he captained the club's VFL side to their first premiership, although he missed the Grand Final due to a one week ban for striking in the preliminary final.

Statistics

 * Statistics are correct to the end of the 2023 season

! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2022 ! colspan=3| Career ! 5 ! 0 ! 0 ! 13 ! 11 ! 24 ! 11 ! 5 ! 0.6 ! 0.0 ! 2.6 ! 2.2 ! 4.8 ! 2.2 ! 1.0 ! 0
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 21 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 3 || 2 || 5 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 3 || 2 || 5 || 3 || 1 || 0
 * scope=row | 2023 || || 21
 * 4 || 3 || 0 || 10 || 9 || 19 || 8 || 4 || 0.75 || 0 || 2.5 || 2.25 || 4.75 || 2 || 1 || 0
 * scope=row | 2024 || || 21
 * 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0
 * - class="sortbottom"
 * 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0
 * - class="sortbottom"
 * - class="sortbottom"
 * }