Connor Blakely (born 2 March 1996) 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 for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

and the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

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).

Early career

Originally from

Bunbury, Western Australia Bunbury () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third most populous city after Perth and Mandurah, with a population of approximately 75,000. Loca ...

, he was drafted with the 34th selection in the 2014 National Draft from

Swan Districts The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL). He made his league debut in 2013, and then in 2014 played all season in Swan Districts league team. He also represented Western Australia at the

2014 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2014 NAB AFL Under 18 Championships was the 19th edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships. Eight teams competed in the championships: Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia and Western Australia in Division 1, and New South Wales/Australia ...

, where he was selected to the tournament's

All-Australian team 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 ...

. In 2015 he played for

Peel Thunder The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The ...

in the

(WAFL), Fremantle's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

. He was awarded the clubs

Best and Fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award at the seasons end. He again played for Peel during the 2016 WAFL season and was a part of their inaugural premiership, beating Subiaco by 23 points. He was awarded the

Simpson Medal The Simpson Medal is an individual prize awarded for Australian rules football in Western Australia. The medal has been donated by Dr Fred Simpson and family since 1945. Simpson Medals are currently awarded to the following players: *The best pl ...

for the best player on ground.

AFL career

Blakely was selected to make his AFL debut for Fremantle in the final round of the

2015 AFL season The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

, when Fremantle sent a weakened team to play

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 ...

at the

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

. Twelve changes were made to the team, and Blakely was one of four players to make their AFL debuts. Blakely was awarded a 2016 AFL Rising Star nomination during round 11 against at Domain Stadium, collecting 25 disposals and 7 tackles. In July 2019, Blakely signed a three-year contract extension with Fremantle, to remain at the club until the end of 2022. Following the conclusion of the

2022 AFL season The 2022 AFL season was the 126th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...

Blakely was delisted by Fremantle, but was picked up as a rookie by in the subsequent rookie draft. Blakely spent the entirety of 2023 playing for Gold Coast's reserve team in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

, and was a part of the clubs inaugural VFL grand final win. After one season with the Gold Coast Suns, Blakely announced his retirement from AFL Football, stating “I’m at a point in my life where I’m ready to let go of football…”. In 2024 Blakely told the Cal Newport podcast that he used his AFL experience to become a sports turf specialist and started playing cricket and had travelled to England to play cricket there.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of round 10, 2022''Connor Blakely's player profile at AFL Tables
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2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 15 , , 1 , , 6 , , 129 , , 175 , , 304 , , 40 , , 56 , , 0.1 , , 0.4 , , 8.6 , , 11.7 , , 20.3 , , 2.7 , , 3.7 , , 3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 17 , , 1 , , 4 , , 210 , , 196 , , 406 , , 88 , , 67 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 12.4 , , 11.5 , , 23.9 , , 5.2 , , 3.9 , , 5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 13 , , 0 , , 1 , , 172 , , 137 , , 309 , , 92 , , 33 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 13.2 , , 10.5 , , 23.8 , , 7.1 , , 2.5 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 14 , , 0 , , 0 , , 156 , , 121 , , 277 , , 72 , , 32 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 11.1 , , 8.6 , , 19.8 , , 5.1 , , 2.3 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 5 , , 0 , , 0 , , 26 , , 49 , , 75 , , 12 , , 12 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.2 , , 9.8 , , 15.0 , , 2.4 , , 2.4 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 13 , , 1 , , 2 , , 50 , , 66 , , 116 , , 30 , , 11 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 3.8 , , 5.1 , , 8.9 , , 2.3 , , 0.8 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 0 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 78 ! 3 ! 13 ! 746 ! 753 ! 1499 ! 335 ! 212 ! 0.0 ! 0.2 ! 9.6 ! 9.7 ! 19.2 ! 4.3 ! 2.7 ! 9 Notes

References

External links

* * * *
WAFL Player Profile and Statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakely, Connor 1996 births Living people Fremantle Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Western Australia 21st-century Australian sportsmen