Thomas Waddingham is a 19-year-old Australian striker who plays for Brisbane Roar in the A-League. Waddingham burst onto the scene in 2023 when he established himself as Brisbane’s first-choice striker in his first professional season. So far he has racked up 12 goals and 2 assists in about 2100 minutes for Brisbane in all competitions. He has played for Australia at U-20 and U-23 level.
Waddingham is relatively tall (6’0/1.85m) but slim. He is very fast and has a tremendous work rate. Waddingham leads Brisbane’s press and does a very good job of angling defenders into difficult spots or outright winning the ball back himself. His speed is a major asset on the defensive side of things. In attack, Waddingham is always a threat to get in behind opposition defences. The timing of his runs is very impressive. Waddingham’s movement against a set defence could be better. He generally gets into the right spots but he’s a little bit slow to get across defenders or to change the direction of his run and that can cause him to miss out on chances. Despite his slim frame, he does use his body very well and wins a lot of physical battles. This makes him a threat to win aerial duels in the box. Waddingham is left-footed which can help him be unpredictable in the box and get shots off from angles the majority of right-footed strikers would not attempt.
Waddingham is not the type of striker that is going to be looking to get on the ball a lot unless he’s shooting it. However, he is a pretty decent transition passer and generally makes the right decisions about when to pass, when to dribble, and when to shoot. As previously mentioned, he is strong in the air, and that allows him to flick the ball on to teammates in the air. The execution of his dribbling is not very sophisticated but he’s fast and he has good pivot strength so sometimes he can bully his way through a defender. His first touch is a little bit inconsistent and sometimes he loses the ball because he could not bring it under control quickly enough. This does not come up very often as if he’s getting the ball he’s usually about to shoot it but it does show he is not that well suited to a team that needs a striker who gets involved in the build-up.
Waddingham’s speed, physicality and work rate make him a very attractive prospect. If he can level-up his off-the ball movement I think he can play for a top club outside the top-5 leagues or a smaller team in the top-5 leagues. He also has UK citizenship so a move to the Championship or the Scottish Premiership seems like a logical next step.
Target Scouting 