Luke Darcy
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.
| Luke Darcy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Date of birth | 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 | |||
| |||
| Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com | |||
Early life
Luke 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..
Statistics
| G | Goals | B | Behinds | K | Kicks | H | Handballs | D | Disposals | M | Marks | T | Tackles |
| 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
Luke Darcy is married to Rebecca and they have four children – Sam, Sienna, William and Max.
Post-football career
In 2008, Darcy 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
Darcy 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. He co-hosted Triple M Melbourne's The Hot Breakfast with fellow AFL personality Eddie McGuire until November 2020.
Seven Network
Following the 2011 season, Network Ten lost the rights to broadcast Australian rules football matches. Luke joined the Seven Network who have the sole free to air broadcasting rights from 2012 to 2016. He is a member of the Saturday Night commentary team with James Brayshaw, Cameron Ling and Matthew Richardson while maintaining his work at Triple M.[3]
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 and Luke Hines.[4]
References
- http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/L/Luke_Darcy.html
- New boys with Seven's Commetti, McAvaney - Sports News First Archived 20 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- "House of Wellness: Rachael Finch, Luke Hines, Jo Stanley, Luke Darcy". The House of Wellness. 8 February 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luke Darcy. |
- 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.
