Luke Darcy

Luke Darcy
Luke Darcy is a helmet racer at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne
Personal information
Date of birth	(1975-07-12) 12 July 1975
Original team(s)	South Adelaide (SANFL)
Debut	Round 21, 13 August 1994, Footscray vs. St Kilda, at Waverley Park
Height	197 cm (6 ft 6 in)
Weight	100 kg (220 lb)
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
Leigh Matthews Trophy 2002 (shared) Charles Sutton Medal 2001 All-Australian 2002 South Australia team representative AFL Rising Star nominee: 1996
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.

Early life

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). David, originally a Victorian, moved his family to Adelaide where Darcy attended Rostrevor College.

AFL career

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.^[2]. From the 2012 AFL season onwards, Darcy was part of the Seven Network's commentating team for Saturday matches.

Statistics

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

• Individual
  • Charles Sutton Medal: 2001
  • Leigh Matthews Trophy (AFLPA MVP Award): 2002 (tied with Michael Voss)
  • All-Australian: 2002
  • Australian Football Media Association Player of the Year Award: 2002
  • Herald Sun Player of the Year Award: 2002
  • Western Bulldogs Leading Club Goalkicker Award: 2004
  • Australian Representative Honours in International Rules Football: 2002
  • Western Bulldogs Captain: 2005-2006
  • AFL Rising Star Nominee: 1996 (Round 3)

Personal life

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

Post-football career

In 2008, he became a member of the AFL rules committee.

Media

After retiring Darcy continued his work in the media. He was a panelist on Fox Footy's Fox League Teams and is now a television and radio commentator.

Network Ten

In 2009, Darcy became an Australian rules football and netball commentator for Network Ten, as well as becoming a panellist on panel shows One Week at a Time, Thursday Night Live. and The Fifth Quarter.

Triple M

He also joined radio station Triple M in Melbourne to provide match commentary for its Australian rules football coverage on Friday nights with James Brayshaw, Garry Lyon, Jason Dunstall, Mark Howard and Ash Chua. and co-hosts Triple M Melbourne's The Hot Breakfast with fellow AFL personality Eddie McGuire and comedian Mick Molloy.

Seven Network

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, Cameron Ling, Matthew Richardson, Samantha Lane and Mick Molloy while maintaining his work at Triple M. In 2014 Luke Darcy became the new host of Seven's iconic AFL chat show Talking Footy. Darcy is also a fill in sport presenter on Seven News Melbourne and has served as a tennis commentator for Seven, covering the 2014 Brisbane International.

External links

• Luke Darcy's profile on the official website of the Western Bulldogs
• Luke Darcy's playing 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.