Kane McAuliffe

Kane McAuliffe (born 1 March 2005) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted by Richmond in the 2023 national draft at pick 40 and made his AFL debut in round 4 of the 2024 season.

Early life and junior football McAuliffe was raised in the regional South Australian coastal town of Port Augusta, 280 kilometres north of Adelaide. He played junior football for the Central Augusta football club in the Spencer Gulf Football League. In addition to his exploits in football, McAuliffe was a talented junior basketball player, being selected to represent the South Australia Country under 16s side at the in 2020 Australian Junior Country Basketball Cup.

At age 14, McAuliffe began boarding at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. During the same time, McAuliffe played representative football with the under 16s team at North Adelaide Football Club where he served as team vice-captain. He played with North Adelaide's under 18 team the same year, including in the league grand final.

In 2023 McAuliffe joined the AFL Academy development program, through which he trained with 's AFL side through January of that year. He later played two showcase matches with the Academy side, against the reserves sides of and . He impressed at under 18 level for North Adelaide that year, averaging 27 disposals per game at the level, before earning selection to the club's SANFL reserves side in the latter part of the year, where he averaged 19 disposals and 6.6 tackles per game.

At the AFL draft combine, McAuliffe recorded the fifth fastest time that year in the 20 metre sprint (2.93 seconds) and placed third in the running vertical jump test (95 cm).

He began his first year by playing with the club's reserves side in the Victorian Football League. He was a standout player in each of the team's first two matches, averaging 30 disposals, seven clearances and six tackles per game.

Player profile McAuliffe plays as a ball-winning inside midfielder. He is a left-foot kicker.

Statistics Updated to the end of round 22, 2026.

23 !! 3 !! 8 !! 169 !! 194 !! 363 !! 52 !! 79 !! 0.1 !! 0.3 !! 7.3 !! 8.4 !! 15.8 !! 2.3 !! 3.4 !! 0