Since coming off the rookie list, the 211cm has long had the potential to be a dominant ruckman.
However, it took until 2008 for his breakthrough season, winning All Australian selection and coming runner-up in Fremantle's Doig Medal to Matthew Pavlich.
Sandilands had a club-record 646 hit-outs for the season, 75 more than his nearest rival and was No 1 for handballs (208), contested possessions (195) and clearances (88) at the club.
He said he was happy to remain on the park after missing the second half of 2007.
"Pav is a champion player and it's a privilege to play with him as he does some amazing stuff on the field. I'm stoked to be runner up to him," Sandilands said.
"It was good to have an injury-free year and play some consistent footy but it was disappointing that we didn’t win enough games to potentially play in finals. Things are looking good for next year though.
"Last year was interrupted a fair bit by injury and it was a disappointing season for me, but I was out there for the whole pre-season which allowed me to get really fit and then I didn’t miss a game, so that really helps."
Sandilands is looking forward to working with Daniel Gilmore and Kepler Bradley as his backups with Robert Warnock opting out of Fremantle and WA.
"They are both quality players," he said.
"Robbie [Warnock] is going to be a really good player going forward and Gilly is a different sort of ruckman, so he's a really good player to work with. The way Kepler Bradley played the last five or six games when he came back into the side was very promising. The different sort of ruckman that he is makes us a dangerous combination and I have full faith in Kepler Bradley and Daniel Gilmore to help me out."
Sandilands is far from content with his terrific season, though, and wants to improve himself as a player and to help the club improve on a disappointing 2008.
"I just have to keep improving as well. Hopefully I have a fair bit of improvement in me if I keep working on my marking and communication with the guys in the centre. There's a heap of improvement there for me to make and hopefully as a team we can also improve more than anything," he said.
"It's definitely disappointing for the year we had as a club. All you want is team success and a premiership, and if you don't do that it is a disappointing year. We will be training hard over pre-season and trying to catch up to Geelong and Hawthorn."
