Darren Jolly

Darren Jolly
Personal information
Full name	Darren Jolly
Date of birth	6 November 1981 (1981-11-06) (age 30)
Original team	North Ballarat (VFL)
Draft	#31, 2001 Rookie Draft, Melbourne
Height/Weight	200cm / 108kg
Position(s)	Ruckman
Club information
Current club	Collingwood
Number	18
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2001–2004 2005–2009 2010– Total	Melbourne Sydney Collingwood	48 (11) 118 (59) 42 (36) 208 (106)
1 Playing statistics to end of QF1, 2011 season .
Career highlights
Sydney premiership player 2005 Collingwood premiership player 2010

Darren Jolly (born 6 November 1981) is a professional Australian rules football player currently playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Jolly has previously played for Melbourne, the Sydney Swans. He is best known as being the ruckman in Sydney's 2005 premiership and Collingwood's 2010 premiership.

Junior career

Darren Jolly in action playing for Sydney

After player for the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup, Jolly spent a year playing for the North Ballarat Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) before being drafted by the Melbourne Football Club in the 2001 Rookie Draft.^[1]

Melbourne

He played 48 games over four seasons for Melbourne, mainly as an understudy to Jeff White.^[2]

Sydney

Darren Jolly (red and white) taps the ball to Adam Goodes (37) after beating Patrick Ryder in the ruck duel

The Demons traded Jolly to Sydney in 2004 for pick 15 in the national draft. Along with Jason Ball, in 2005 he was an integral part of Sydney's ruck division and after the retirement of Ball, assumed the number one ruck role at Sydney.

During his time at the Swans Jolly only missed two games, stemming from a suspension following an incident against his old club Melbourne. Jolly has not missed an AFL game since, but this run was cut in early 2011 due to an injury suffered in 2011 playing for Collingwood.

In the early hours of 29 September - one day before the Swans played in the 2006 AFL Grand Final, Jolly's wife Deanne gave birth to the couple's first child, Scarlett, which brought relief to coach Paul Roos, as Jolly had said he would not play in the Grand Final if his wife was to give birth on the day of the game.^[3]

Collingwood

At the end of the 2009 season, Jolly requested a trade be done so he could return to his native Victoria with his family.^[4] Many clubs expressed initial interest in securing a senior ruckman, with Collingwood satisfying Sydney's requirements, trading picks 14 and 46 in the 2009 AFL Draft.^[5] In 2010, Jolly performed very well to become Collingwood's number 1 ruckman and was named in the 40-man All-Australian team squad, but did not make the final team.^[6]

Jolly first year at Collingwood mirrored to that of his first year at the Swans, in that he won a premiership in the first year of his stints at both Sydney and Collingwood. Prior to the Grand Final Jolly was the only premiership player in the Collingwood squad; he is now a dual premiership player.

Darren Jolly played his 200th game in Round 19 of the 2011 AFL season, against Essendon. Collingwood won by 74 points.

Statistics

Jolly holds the record of most hitouts in a game by a current AFL player, amassing 53 against Collingwood on June 20, 2009. He beat his previous record of 49 and overall is ranked second since statistics have been kept (1987), one hitout behind Matthew Burton.^[7]

Statistics are correct as of 3 August 2010 (Round 18, 2010 season), Averages are in brackets.^[8]

Season	Team	No.	Games	Disposals	Kicks	Handballs	Marks	Hitouts	Goals	Behinds
2001	Melbourne	41	4	10 (2.5)	5 (1.2)	5 (1.2)	2 (0.5)	14 (3.5)	0 (0.0)	1 (0.2)
2002		11	18	85 (4.7)	46 (2.6)	39 (2.2)	27 (1.5)	100 (5.6)	7 (0.4)	1 (0.1)
2003			19	138 (7.3)	72 (3.8)	66 (3.5)	47 (2.5)	260 (13.7)	4 (0.2)	0 (0.0)
2004			7	24 (3.4)	16 (2.3)	8 (1.1)	11 (1.6)	44 (6.3)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)
2005	Sydney	16	24	185 (7.7)	110 (4.6)	75 (3.1)	64 (2.7)	442 (18.4)	10 (0.4)	4 (0.2)
2006			25	209 (8.4)	141 (5.7)	68 (2.7)	55 (2.2)	605 (24.2)	2 (0.1)	5 (0.2)
2007			23	227 (9.9)	162 (7.0)	65 (2.8)	95 (4.1)	458 (19.9)	16 (0.7)	7 (0.3)
2008			24	271 (11.3)	160 (6.7)	111 (4.6)	105 (4.4)	543 (22.6)	15 (0.6)	11 (0.5)
2009			22	261 (11.9)	134 (6.1)	127 (5.8)	92 (4.2)	682 (31.0)	16 (0.7)	12 (0.5)
2010	Collingwood	18	18	222 (12.3)	117 (6.5)	105 (5.8)	90 (5.0)	384 (21.3)	16 (0.9)	5 (0.3)
Totals			184	1632 (8.9)	963 (5.2)	669 (3.7)	588 (3.2)	3532 (19.2)	86 (0.5)	46 (0.3)

References

1. ^ Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2002). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (4th ed.). Melbourne, Victoria: Crown Content. p. 332. ISBN 1-74095-001-1.
2. ^ Lovett, Michael, ed (2005). AFL Record 2005 Guide to Season. pp. 279. ISBN 0-9580300-6-5. 
3. ^ Grant, Robert; Cooper, Adam (September 29, 2006). "Jolly good news for Swans". http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,20496563-23211,00.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 
4. ^ Denham, Greg (5 October 2009). "Darren Jolly set for shock switch to Magpies". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26164117-2722,00.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 
5. ^ Broad, Ben (8 October 2009). "Jolly Pie-bound with two-pick deal". AFL.com.au. http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/85865/default.aspx. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 
6. ^ Cats dominate All-Australian squad
7. ^ Player Game Records AFL Tables
8. ^ "Darren Jolly statistics". AFL Tables. http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/D/Darren_Jolly.html. Retrieved 30 April 2010. 

External links

• Darren Jolly's statistics from AFL Tables

Persondata
Name	Jolly, Darren
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	6 November 1981
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death