Luke Ottens (born 22 May 1976) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). He is the elder brother of

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

and premiership player,

Brad Ottens Brad Ottens (born 25 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Ottens was born in South Australia, ...

, and the son of

Dean Ottens Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

Early life

He is the son of Dean Ottens, who was a talented ruckman for Sturt in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL). Dean played 116 games, won two premierships and representing

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

seven times. Born on 22 May 1976, Luke grew up in a footballing family. His brother, Brad, had a successful AFL career, winning three premierships with Geelong. Brad claims his earliest memory is "playing in the backyard with

uke Uke or UKE may refer to: People * Billy "Uke" Carpenter, American musician * Billy "Uke" Scott (1923–2004), British musician * Uke Clanton (1898–1960), American baseball player * Ukë Rugova, Kosovar politician * Sıtkı Üke (1876– ...

. Ottens began his career with Glenelg, playing in the SANFL. He was drafted in the inaugural rookie draft in 1997 by

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

, but he failed to play a game for Port, instead continuing to play for Glenelg.

AFL career

Ottens was drafted to the

with the 50th selection in the

1997 AFL Draft The 1997 AFL Draft was held at the conclusion of the 1997 Australian Football League (AFL) season. A Pre-season Draft and the second Rookie Draft were held prior to the 1998 season. It is considered to have been one of the most successful draf ...

, the same draft in which his brother,

Brad Brad may refer to: * Brad (given name), a masculine given name Places * Brad, Hunedoara, a city in Hunedoara County, Romania * Brad, a village in Berești-Bistrița Commune, Bacău County, Romania * Brad, a village in Filipeni, Bacău, Romania * ...

, was drafted by

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

with the second selection. He injured his groin the December after he was drafted, requiring surgery. Ottens made his debut for Melbourne's reserves in April 1998. Ottens was hampered by groin problems for the remainder of 1998 and did not manage to break into the senior team, playing all his matches in the reserves. Ottens made his AFL debut in the first round of the 1999 season, playing against his brother, Brad, who was playing in his 13th match. Although a key-position defender, Ottens also played as Melbourne's backup ruckman, occasionally rucking directly against his brother during the match. He was, however, "dominated" by his younger, but substantially taller, brother in these encounters. In his third game, Ottens, along with fellow youngster Troy Longmuir, were praised for their "enthusiasm" in a game the Demons narrowly lost. Ottens was dropped from the team for Melbourne's round 5 match and he never made his way back into the Melbourne senior team in a career that was crippled by injury, causing the round 4 game to be his last AFL match. In May 1999, Ottens the medial ligament in his knee while playing in the reserves, sidelining him for six weeks. In round 13 of the 1999 season, Ottens injured his left knee, requiring a knee reconstruction, which ruled him out for the remainder of the 1999 season and half of the 2000 season. After successfully returning from injury in round 15 of 2000, Ottens then injured his right knee only four games later, again requiring a knee reconstruction. Due to his horrendous run with injuries, Ottens was delisted by the Demons at the end of the 2000 season. After being delisted, Ottens went back to his original team, Glenelg, and played for the Tigers from 2001 to 2002. Luke finished his career playing for the

Encounter Bay Football Club The Encounter Bay Football Club, nicknamed the Eagles, is an Australian rules football club based in Encounter Bay, South Australia, that plays in the Great Southern Football League. Club history Australian rules football on the Fleurieu Pen ...

in 2003–04.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ottens, Luke 1976 births Glenelg Football Club players Living people Melbourne Football Club players Australian rules footballers from South Australia