| Luke Darcy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Nicknames | Darce, Duke | ||
| Born | (1975-07-12)12 July 1975 (age 50) | ||
| Original team | South Adelaide (SANFL)/Rostrevor College | ||
| Debut | Round 21 1994,Footscray vs.St Kilda, atWaverley Park | ||
| Height | 197 cm (6 ft 6 in) | ||
| Weight | 100 kg (220 lb) | ||
| Positions | Ruck, Forward | ||
| 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 formerAustralian rules footballer who played with theWestern Bulldogs in theAustralian Football League (AFL) and now works for theSeven Network andTriple M covering the AFL and the Olympics.
Luke Darcy was born inAdelaide,South Australia, the son ofDavid Darcy, who had played with Footscray (as the Western Bulldogs were then called) and played for and coachedSouth Adelaide in theSouth Australian National Football League (SANFL).[1] David, originally a Victorian, moved his family to Adelaide where Luke attendedRostrevor College.
Luke Darcy started his career with South Adelaide before his recruitment by the Bulldogs in 1993.
Debuting in1994, Darcy became known as one of the Bulldogs' most successfulruckmen/forwards. In2001 he took out the Bulldogs' Best and Fairest award, theCharles Sutton Medal, and continued to play well in the following seasons. in2002 Darcy and theBrisbane Lions'sMichael Voss were the first players to be awarded theLeigh Matthews Trophy as theAFL Players Association's Most Valuable Player (MVP)1. In2004 he was theWestern Bulldogs's leading goalkicker.
In a2005 match againstGeelong, 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 theACL during a fall which dislocated his knee, which meant that he would miss the entire2006 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 providedspecial comments forNetwork Ten's AFL coverage, and continued to do so after his playing retirement which he announced on 2 August 2007, the end of the2007 AFL season. Darcy was officially added toNetwork 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 the2011 AFL season, when the network lost broadcasting rights.[1].
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 | ||
| 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 | |
Darcy is married to wife Rebecca and has four children. He is also the son of former Footscray ruckmanDavid 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 sonSam Darcy was drafted by theWestern Bulldogs at pick number 2 in the2021 AFL draft under thefather–son rule.
Darcy met the formerLeader of the OppositionPeter 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.
Late in his AFL career, Darcy was an expert commentator forNetwork 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 anetball commentator as well as becoming a panellist on AFL panel showsOne Week at a Time,Thursday Night Live. andThe Fifth Quarter.
Darcy also joined radio stationTriple M in Melbourne to provide match commentary for itsAustralian rules football coverage on Friday nights. He co-hosted Triple M Melbourne'sThe Hot Breakfast with fellow AFL personalityEddie McGuire until November 2020.
Following the 2011 season,Network Ten lost the rights to broadcastAustralian rules football matches; he subsequently joined theSeven Network as part of its expanded AFL coverage. He mainly commentates on the station's Saturday night coverage while maintaining his work atTriple M on Friday nights.[4]
In 2014, Darcy became the new host of Seven's AFL chat showTalking Footy. Darcy has also been a fill in sport presenter onSeven News Melbourne and has served as atennis commentator for Seven, covering the2014 Brisbane International.
In February 2019, Darcy was announced as co-host of theSeven Network's lifestyle program,House of Wellness alongsideJo Stanley,Rachael Finch, Luke Hines and Jacqui Felgate.[5]
Darcy hosted Seven's coverage of the2020 Tokyo Olympics alongsideJohanna Griggs.
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.
