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Aaron Woods (born 13 March 1991) is an Australian former rugby league forward who captained Wests Tigers and played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, St. George Illawarra Dragons and Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League (NRL). He has played at representative level for Australia, Prime Minister's XIII, NSW City Origin and New South Wales in the State of Origin series.
Woods played junior rugby league with Leichhardt Juniors and participated in the Balmain Tigers Development Program. He based his game on players Jason Ryles and Ben Kennedy. He attended Holy Cross College, Ryde, and represented NSW Catholic Colleges when he was 17. In 2008, he played for the Australian schoolboys team. In 2009, Woods played for Wests Tigers' Toyota Cup (Under-20s) team in their run to the Grand Final, but 2010 was mired by injury, with his hamstring coming close to being torn completely off the bone. However, before the start of the 2011 season, Ricky Stuart named him in a "Blues in Waiting" squad, for potential future NSW State of Origin players. He was described as one of, "the State's best crop of young talent."
Woods scored a try in his 4th appearance. He was a regular in the first-grade team throughout the year, mostly starting from the bench. His first season form was described as, "impressive," and, "one of the few constants in an erratic Wests Tigers' NRL season." He was named the club's rookie of the year. With the departure of Bryce Gibbs and Todd Payten, Woods became a starting prop at the start of 2012 season. After seven weeks, Woods made his senior representative debut with City Origin. Coach Brad Fittler said of his performance, "I thought he was the best prop on the field. I'm sure he'll build from this, and whether it's this year or next year, he looks like someone who can make the step up."
Woods was named as a standby player for NSW in the first two State of Origin matches of 2012, to cover for any late injuries. It was commented in the press that he had, "arguably been the form front-rower of the competition so far." Over the season he made 377 runs for 3455 metres and made 808 tackles, placing him near the best in the NRL in yardage, and in the top twenty in tackles made. He was one only 3 Wests Tigers players to appear in every game throughout the season, and was named the club's Player of the Year. At the end of the year he was nominated for Prop of the Year at the Dally M awards. Steve Roach later said, "He virtually carried them the last year, when Galloway was injured. I reckon, along with James Tamou, he's the best ball-running front-rower in the comp."
Thought by some to be the form prop during the early NRL rounds, he was considered unlucky not to be selected in the 2014 ANZAC Test. Woods went on to be named as a starting prop for New South Wales in the 2014 State of Origin series. He was one of three NSW players to carry the ball 100 metres in game one, and then contributed to the team winning its first series in nine years.
Woods finished 2014 as the Tigers' leader in offloads and hitups, scoring a personal best 4 tries. In round 9, he co-captained the team for the first time with Chris Lawrence. At the end of the season, Woods was again chosen to play for Prime Minister's XIII, scoring two tries, and was described as "the dominant player up the middle."
Woods was again chosen as a starting prop for NSW in the 2015 State of Origin series. Playing in a losing team in game one, he ran for 141 metres with the ball and made 41 tackles without a miss, with the Herald Sun asking, "Is there any doubting now he's the game's new top prop?" In the second game, he ran for a game-high 150 metres and brushed past opponent Matt Scott to score a try in the second half that saw NSW take a match-winning lead. Although not awarded the Man of the Match, he was given 3 Dally M points for being rated the best player on the field, momentarily placing him first on the Dally M leader-board. However, in the third match, Woods was criticised for conceding too many penalties in the Blues series-deciding loss.
Despite missing games due to State of Origin and injury, Woods was in the competition's top 20 players for hit-ups and yardage and was named at prop in the NRL website's team of the year. In the absence of Robbie Farah, Woods captained Wests Tigers in 4 matches, all of which were losses. Woods capped off the season with the Dally M Prop of the Year award and finished runner up in the Dally M Player of the Year to Johnathan Thurston.
A "near certain" selection for the Anzac Test, Woods was unable to play after suffering ligament damage and bone bruising in his ankle in round 6. At the time, he was the competition's leader for metres gained with the ball. He returned in round 10 and was chosen for New South Wales. The Blues lost the first 2 games with Woods being very blunt when asked by Channel 9 commentators how he felt seeing Queensland win another series Woods said "It's shithouse," Woods told Channel Nine. "It's probably the best way to put it. We just let them off the hook again tonight like game one". Woods was described as, "The best prop on the ground in the first half with several strong carries. The only NSW forward to run 100 metres," in game 2. He had the most metres for any forward on the ground when NSW won the third game of the series.
Making 19 appearances for Wests Tigers, he was the club's leader in hit ups, and had a club-high average of 160 metres per game in attack. At year's end, he was chosen in the Australian squad for the Four Nations, but was absent from the test against New Zealand due to his wedding. Coach Mal Meninga said, "The timing is not perfect but family comes first and you've got to keep the wives happy don't you?" He was the starting prop in all four Four Nations matches, which were all victories.
Before the Wests Tigers' next match, which was against Canterbury, Woods was booed by sections of the crowd before the game, but was awarded the man of the match for his performance. Soon after he signed a four-year deal with the Canterbury club. Woods later said, "I'm not proud of how things went down. At the time I thought what I was doing was right, but looking back I should've handled things differently. I was the captain of the Wests Tigers. I grew up around the corner from Leichhardt Oval. I lost sight of what that meant and the responsibility I had continuing the legacy of the guys that came before me."
On 30 July, Woods scored his first try of the year as Wests defeated Gold Coast 26–4.
Woods would go on to make a total of 12 appearances for Cronulla in 2018 as the club reached the preliminary final but fell short of a grand final appearance losing to Melbourne.
At the end of the season, Cronulla finished in 7th spot and qualified for the finals. Woods played in the club's elimination final defeat against Manly.
| + !Year !Team !Games !Tries !Pts | ||||
| 2011 | Wests Tigers | 24 | 1 | 4 |
| 2012 | 24 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2013 | 16 | 2 | 8 | |
| 2014 | 21 | 4 | 16 | |
| 2015 | 20 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2016 | 19 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2017 | 22 | 2 | 8 | |
| 2018 | Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks | 12 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2019 | Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks | 16 | 1 | 4 |
| 2020 | 21 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2021 | 24 | 3 | 12 | |
| 2022 | St. George Illawarra Dragons | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2023 | Manly Warringah Sea Eagles | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 270 | 17 | 72 |
On 28 July 2025, Woods claimed that the story between himself and Slater had been blown out of proportion but stated he did have words with former Melbourne player Ryan Hoffman. Hoffman had called Woods a "coward" live on television in regards to what was originally said about Slater. Woods stated "Ryan Hoffman came out and called me a coward, and then he back flipped and said he didn’t,” Wood’s explained. We had a conversation. I said, ‘look you can call me whatever you want, just don’t ever mention my son’s name again with things that didn’t happen’, because Buster didn’t get a photo with Billy".
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