Luke Darcy

Luke Darcy
Darcy at the celebrity race at
Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne
Personal information
Nickname(s) Darce, Duke
Date of birth (1975-07-12) 12 July 1975 (age 49)
Original team(s) South Adelaide (SANFL)/Rostrevor College
Debut Round 21 1994, Footscray vs. St Kilda, at Waverley Park
Height 197 cm (6 ft 6 in)
Weight 100 kg (220 lb)
Position(s) Ruck
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1994–2007 Western Bulldogs 226 (183)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1996–1999 South Australia 2 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2007.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Luke Darcy (born 12 July 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL) and now works for the Seven Network and Triple M covering the AFL and the Olympics.

Early life

Luke Darcy was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of David Darcy, who had played with Footscray (as the Western Bulldogs were then called) and played for and coached South Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).[1] David, originally a Victorian, moved his family to Adelaide where Luke attended Rostrevor College.

AFL career

Luke Darcy started his career with South Adelaide before his recruitment by the Bulldogs in 1993.

Debuting in 1994, Darcy became known as one of the Bulldogs' most successful ruckmen/forwards. In 2001 he took out the Bulldogs' Best and Fairest award, the Charles Sutton Medal, and continued to play well in the following seasons. in 2002 Darcy and the Brisbane Lions's Michael Voss were the first players to be awarded the Leigh Matthews Trophy as the AFL Players Association's Most Valuable Player (MVP)1. In 2004 he was the Western Bulldogs's leading goalkicker.

In a 2005 match against Geelong, Darcy suffered a season-ending knee injury when he twisted it, depriving the Bulldogs of a quality tall-forward option, something they missed during the year.

On 20 December 2005 during the final pre-season training session before the Christmas holidays, Darcy re-injured the ACL during a fall which dislocated his knee, which meant that he would miss the entire 2006 season. The Bulldogs finished the season in eighth place, the first time the club had made the finals in six years. He had been part of a Bulldogs casualty list that included four ACL injuries during the season (up until only the Round 9 mark).

During his time on the sidelines, he provided special comments for Network Ten's AFL coverage, and continued to do so after his playing retirement which he announced on 2 August 2007, the end of the 2007 AFL season. Darcy was officially added to Network Ten's AFL commentary team in 2007 (despite still playing football until the end of that season) and remained an Expert Commentator right up until the end of the 2011 AFL season, when the network lost broadcasting rights.[1].

Statistics

[2]

Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1994 Footscray 40 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 2.0 0.0 1.0
1995 Footscray 14 3 0 1 10 5 15 4 2 0.0 0.3 3.3 1.7 5.0 1.3 0.7
1996 Footscray 14 20 12 8 160 78 238 92 15 0.6 0.4 8.0 3.9 11.9 4.6 0.8
1997 Western Bulldogs 14 23 24 13 208 92 300 131 14 1.0 0.6 9.0 4.0 13.0 5.7 0.6
1998 Western Bulldogs 14 24 13 8 187 88 275 107 15 0.5 0.3 7.8 3.7 11.5 4.6 0.6
1999 Western Bulldogs 14 24 19 15 221 104 325 136 17 0.8 0.6 9.2 4.3 13.5 5.7 0.7
2000 Western Bulldogs 14 17 10 5 172 99 271 106 17 0.6 0.3 10.1 5.8 15.9 6.2 1.0
2001 Western Bulldogs 14 21 14 8 237 145 382 118 30 0.7 0.4 11.3 6.9 18.2 5.6 1.4
2002 Western Bulldogs 14 22 23 8 249 211 460 149 63 1.0 0.4 11.3 9.6 20.9 6.8 2.9
2003 Western Bulldogs 14 21 9 7 211 165 376 129 46 0.4 0.3 10.0 7.9 17.9 6.1 2.2
2004 Western Bulldogs 14 22 30 13 216 136 352 127 59 1.4 0.6 9.8 6.2 16.0 5.8 2.7
2005 Western Bulldogs 14 6 11 3 51 30 81 43 7 1.8 0.5 8.5 5.0 13.5 7.2 1.2
2006 Western Bulldogs 14 0 — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
2007 Western Bulldogs 14 22 18 8 141 87 228 91 43 0.8 0.4 6.4 4.0 10.4 4.1 2.0
Career 226 183 97 2063 1242 3305 1233 329 0.8 0.4 9.1 5.5 14.6 5.5 1.5

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
1994 —
1995 —
1996 2
1997 7
1998 —
1999 5
2000 3
2001 11
2002 16
2003 6
2004 —
2005 5
2006 —
2007 —
Total 55
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

Post football career and personal life

Darcy is married to wife Rebecca and has four children. He is also the son of former Footscray ruckman David Darcy.

In 2008, Darcy became a member of the AFL rules committee while 2011 joined the AFL's All Australian selection panel filling this role for nine years until 2020. Darcy resigned as an All Australian selector to join former club, Western Bulldogs as a director.

In 2021, Darcy's son Sam Darcy was drafted by the Western Bulldogs at pick number 2 in the 2021 AFL Draft under the father–son rule.

Darcy met the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton through mutual friends, and became close friends. He is reported to have introduced him to meditation.[3]

In June 2023, Darcy was inducted into the Western Bulldogs Hall of Fame.

Media

Late in his AFL career, Darcy was an expert commentator for Network Ten, doing this while injured then filling in around his playing commitments. Darcy was part of the team full time once his retirement came at the end of 2007. His roles expanded on Ten becoming a netball commentator as well as becoming a panellist on AFL panel shows One Week at a Time, Thursday Night Live. and The Fifth Quarter.

Darcy also joined radio station Triple M in Melbourne to provide match commentary for its Australian rules football coverage on Friday nights. He co-hosted Triple M Melbourne's The Hot Breakfast with fellow AFL personality Eddie McGuire until November 2020.

Following the 2011 season, Network Ten lost the rights to broadcast Australian rules football matches; he subsequently joined the Seven Network as part of its expanded AFL coverage. He mainly commentates on the station's Saturday night coverage while maintaining his work at Triple M on Friday nights.[4]

In 2014, Darcy became the new host of Seven's AFL chat show Talking Footy. Darcy has also been a fill in sport presenter on Seven News Melbourne and has served as a tennis commentator for Seven, covering the 2014 Brisbane International.

In February 2019, Darcy was announced as co-host of the Seven Network's lifestyle program, House of Wellness alongside Jo Stanley, Rachael Finch, Luke Hines and Jacqui Felgate.[5]

Darcy hosted Seven's coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics alongside Johanna Griggs.

References

  1. ^ "Why Darcy Mk III is on the outer". 7 May 2008.
  2. ^ "AFL Tables - Luke Darcy - Stats - Statistics".
  3. ^ "Dutton's power networks: Mix of mates 'the real Peter' keeps close". The Australian. 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  4. ^ New boys with Seven's Commetti, McAvaney - Sports News First Archived 20 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "House of Wellness: Rachael Finch, Luke Hines, Jo Stanley, Luke Darcy". The House of Wellness. 8 February 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
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Note

1The AFL MVP award dates back to 1982, when the league was still the Victorian Football League (VFL), but the Leigh Matthews Trophy was only created in 2002. All prior VFL/AFL MVPs were retrospectively given the Leigh Matthews Trophy in 2005.