Luke Darcy

Luke Darcy

Personal information
Birth	12 July 1975 (1975-07-12)
Recruited from	South Adelaide (SANFL)
Height and weight	197 cm / 100 kg
Playing career¹
Debut	Round 21, 13 August 1994, Footscray v. St Kilda, at Waverley Park
Team(s)	Western Bulldogs (1994–2007) 226 games, 183 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2007 season
Career highlights
Leigh Matthews Trophy 2002 (shared) Charles Sutton Medal 2001 All-Australian 2002 State of Origin (South Australia)

Luke Darcy (born 12 July 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs who now juggles roles in media and administration.

Early life

Luke Darcy was born in South Australia, the son of David Darcy who played for South Adelaide in the SANFL and 133 games for the Footscray Bulldogs in the VFL. David, originally a Victorian, moved his family to Adelaide. Like his father, Luke also played for both South Adelaide and the Bulldogs, being recruited from South Adelaide to play in the AFL with the Western Bulldogs.

AFL career

Debuting in 1994, Darcy is regarded as one of the Bulldogs' most successful ruckmen/forwards. In 2001 he took out the Charles Sutton Medal, and continued to stamp his name on the game in the following seasons. The following season, he and Michael Voss were the first players to be awarded the Leigh Matthews Trophy as AFL Players Association MVP¹. In 2004 he was the Western Bulldogs leading goalkicker.

In 2005 against Geelong, Darcy suffered a season-ending knee injury when he twisted it, which deprived 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 an awful fall which slightly dislocated the knee, which meant that he would miss the entire 2006 season. The Bulldogs finished the season in sixth 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.^[2] . From the 2012 season onwards, Darcy will be commentating Saturday matches for the Seven Network as part of its' expanded AFL coverage.

Personal life

Darcy is married to Rebecca and they have four children – Sam, Sienna, Willson and Max.

Post-football career

After retiring, Darcy continued his work in the media. He was a panelist on Fox Footy's Fox League Teams show and also The Fifth Quarter.

In 2008, he became a member of the AFL rules committee. In 2009, he became an Australian rules football and netball commentator for the Network Ten, as well as becoming a pannelist on One Week at a Time and Thursday Night Live. He also Joined Triple M in Melbourne to provide match commentary for its Australian rules football coverage. He also co-hosts Triple M Melbourne's The Hot Breakfast with Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy.

Following the 2011 season, Network Ten lost the rights to broadcast Australian rules football matches. Darcy joined the Seven Network who have the sole free to air broadcasting rights from 2012-2016. He is a member of the Saturday Night commentary team with Brian Taylor and Cameron Ling, while maintaining his work at Triple M.

External links

• Luke Darcy's profile on the Official AFL Website of the Western Bulldogs Football Club
• Luke Darcy's statistics from AFL Tables

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.

Preceded by Scott West	Western Bulldogs Best and Fairest winner 2001	Succeeded by Brad Johnson
Preceded by Andrew McLeod	Leigh Matthews Trophy 2002 (shared with Michael Voss)	Succeeded by Michael Voss