Williamson

One of 12 additions to the player roster at Carlton for 2017 is Tom Williamson, a 190 cm athletic midfielder-defender from the North Ballarat Rebels in the Under-18 TAC Cup competition. Selected at pick 61 in the 2016 national draft and allocated guernsey 31 by the Blues, Williamson is a fitness fanatic who produced outstanding efforts at the draft combine, finishing first in the agility test and second in the 3 km time trial.

During 2016 Williamson represented Vic Country in the national Under-18 championships, where his pace and elite endurance stood out. Upon hearing that Tom was on his way to Princes Park, one of his junior coaches, David Hosking, was quoted as saying; “Tom is always in top condition physically, his decision making is first class, and he just doesn’t make errors. He’s just so dedicated and so disciplined in his attention to detail and his fitness - he does everything right.”

He managed 15 games in his debut year in a super solid start to his career, remembering how late he was drafted. Unfortunately back injuries kept him out of the game in 2018 but he would return to the pre-season in supreme nick and ready to reclaim his spot in 2019.

With a new hierarchy at the Club in 2022, hopes were high that Williamson would reclaim his spot in the seniors and thrive under Voss. A med-sub position early on saw him register a game, without game time, before a run of solid form in the seconds appeared to see him in the 'top 25'. Unfortunately for Tom, it was announced in May he would be taking leave from the Club to deal with certain personal issues, and come July, with the Blues firmly in the 8, Carlton announced Williamson would not return. 44 games over 6 seasons and a lot of dash with that trusty left, but an early exit for Tom.

On July 16, 2022 Tom Williamson lines up with North Melbourne VFL side in their VFL Round 17 two point lost to Richmond at Arden Street. He was wearing number 51 and named on the wing. He had 13 disposals (6 kicks 7 handballs), 3 marks 2 tackles and 1 clearance.

Williamson would head back to his original club Ararat for the 2023 season, this included three premierships in a row from 2023 - 2025.

Tom Williamson stars in Ararat football premiership three-peat
24 September 2025 - Weekly Adevrtiser.

Ararat’s third consecutive Wimmera league premiership was achieved in emphatic style, led by a dominant performance by co-coach Tom Williamson. With just one point the difference at half time at Anzac Park, Warracknabeal, the Rats served up a punishing second half to outscore Southern Mallee Thunder 61-10. After going through the home-and-away season undefeated, Ararat lost a fiery second semi-final to the Thunder – a match that saw Williamson given two yellow cards – the second for an incident that remains under investigation by AFL Victoria. It was all Ararat in the fourth term, scoring 4.5 to Thunder’s two points, as Williamson added another two to his tally to kick six for the day – tellingly more than the Thunder’s entire score. Williamson was awarded the Binns Medal for a best-on-ground performance, while Hugh Toner won the best under-21 player for the match.
Amazing win - Co-coach Tom Mills – who will step away from coaching next season but remain at the club as a player – described the win as amazing. “I think there’s only two of us who did not play juniors at the club who played today, so as you can imagine, it means a lot – when you grow up in a club, everyone that’s involved, it means so much to give back to those people as well, it’s huge for us as players,” he said. Mills paid tribute to his co-coach, who led from the front. “ He’s a star every week. You can see why the players love him because he just leads from the front,” he said. “When he is telling you to do something and he’s doing it out there himself, all you can do is follow him – he was amazing, really proud of him.” In the first half, Williamson duelled with Thunder captain and league runner-up best-and-fairest winner Billy Lloyd, creating a top-class battle at stoppages. “Billy has got a really good craft in there so I took it upon myself to go head to head with him. He’s a fantastic player – he is consistently up there in the Toohey Medal and credit to him,” Williamson said after the game. The co-coach pointed to the efforts of his defenders, led by James Jennings, Harry Ganley and Ethan Summers. “It’s pretty evident in our games, if they can squeeze, we can get territory and the way they set up behind the ball was second to none –  that second half just felt like anything that went in there was coming straight back out or was intercepted,” he said. Williamson described the team’s performance as ‘awesome’ and thanked the club for its support in light of the investigation. “Obviously it’s been a challenging few weeks, but us as a club, how we conducted ourselves, I couldn’t be more proud of ‘Hock’ (club president David Hosking), all the way down to our last player on our list,” he said.

Williamson former junior clubs were Ararat and St Patrick's College Ballarat.