Darcy Fort (born 6 August 1993) is an

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 playing for 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). A 2.04-metre ruckman who can also play as a key forward, he played in several state leagues before being drafted by Geelong as a mature-age recruit. He made his AFL debut in round 9 of the 2019 season.

Junior and state-league career

From

Geelong, Victoria Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

, Fort originally played for South Barwon as a junior and represented the

Geelong Falcons The Geelong Falcons is a youth Australian rules football representative club in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition in Victoria, Australia. The club takes in talented junior players from the Geelong, Colac and Warr ...

in the

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

. Ahead of the

2012 AFL draft The 2012 AFL draft consisted of five opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2012/13 Australian Football League off-season. These were: *2012 trade period; which was held between 1 October and 26 October, and for the first time incorp ...

he was little-noticed by recruiters until a match with South Barwon in the

Geelong Football League The Geelong Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is widely regarded as the highest-standard Australian rules football league in regional Victoria, with sever ...

, when he rucked competitively against Brad Ottens, a triple-premiership player for Geelong, despite his size and experience deficit. Over his 10 TAC Cup matches for the season, Fort averaged 10 disposals, 3.5 marks, 26 hitouts and 3.4 tackles; the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

'' reported that he was regarded as among the best ruckmen in the competition, highlighted Fort's tackling, tenacity and follow-up effort as strengths, and predicted he would be drafted in the late second or early third round (pick 40–50). Fort was nevertheless overlooked at the 2012 draft (a snub the ''

Geelong Advertiser The ''Geelong Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper circulating in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, the Bellarine Peninsula, and surrounding areas. First published on 21 November 1840, the ''Geelong Advertiser'' is the oldest newspaper title in Victo ...

'' called "inexplicable") and entered a stint 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 ...

(VFL) with

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the local government area of the City of Wyndham. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census. Werrib ...

. He played four matches of the 2013 season before moving to Footscray. Fort played eleven matches and kicked eight goals over the next two years, then switched to

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. ...

club Central District ahead of the 2016 season. At this point, he was playing as a ruckman with stints as a key defender. Over the next three years, Fort kicked 29 goals in 52 games as he began to take on a forward-line role. ''

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

'' claimed he "might be the best mature-age ruck prospect in Australia" after he averaged 31.5 hitouts for Central District in 2018; journalist Callum Twomey also highlighted Fort as a possible selection in the

2018 AFL draft The 2018 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) traded and recruited players following the completion of the 2018 AFL season. For the first time, the AFL draft featured live trading ...

AFL career

Fort was drafted by Geelong with pick 65 in the 2018 national draft, quitting his job as a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

to play for the club. He followed

Orren Stephenson Orren Stephenson (born 15 July 1982) is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club and the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was originally drafted by the Geelong Football Club in t ...

(2011) and Ryan Abbott (2016) as mature-age ruckmen selected by the club. Fort began his time with Geelong competing with Abbott, Rhys Stanley and Zac Smith for the ruckman position. The proliferation of ruckmen led to him spending more time as a key forward in Geelong's VFL reserves, where he kicked eight goals in four matches and displayed strong marking ability while rucking alongside Abbott. After Stanley withdrew late from Geelong's round 9 match against the , Fort replaced him for his first AFL match. He notched 17 hitouts and kicked three goals in combination with Abbott. He played two more matches to complete the 2019 season. Fort was traded to the at the conclusion of the

2021 AFL season The 2021 AFL season was the 125th 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 feature ...

. Due to first choice ruckman Oscar McInerney's injuries sustained in the preliminary final win against Geelong, Fort was part of the Brisbane Lions 2024 premiership winning team, brought into the team for the Grand Final. In May of 2025 Fort signed on with Brisbane until 2026.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of the 2024 season''. , - ,

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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 ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

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Honours and achievements

Team * AFL premiership player:

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fort, Darcy Living people 1993 births Geelong Football Club players Brisbane Lions players VFL/AFL premiership players Brisbane Lions premiership players Australian rules footballers from Geelong South Barwon Football Club players Geelong Falcons players Werribee Football Club players Central District Football Club players 21st-century Australian sportsmen