To “spot him up”

You hear the phrase “spotted him up” often, and variations on it, when watching AFL games. It is a phrase that in isolation would be very difficult to understand.

So, what does it mean?

It is an abbreviated way of saying that the player who has the ball has seen his teammate who is in some space, and he has successfully kicked it to him. There is further nuance in that it only applies when the receiving teammate is stationary (or almost stationary).

Relative to most of the peculiar sports commentary english that we are subjected to, which often and painfully drains meaning from sentences, this one is pretty useful.