Darcy Parish (born 25 July 1997) is a professional

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 with the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

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 life

Parish was born in

Winchelsea, Victoria Winchelsea is a town in Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Surf Coast Shire local government area, the suburb or locality of Winchelsea is predominantly within Surf Coast Shire with a small section within the Colac Otway Shire. Wi ...

. He participated in the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian football to children aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective program. It has incre ...

program at the local Winchelsea club. He played under-18 football with 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 ...

. Parish was recruited by the Essendon Football Club with the fifth overall selection in the 2015 national draft.

AFL career

Parish was recruited by the Essendon Football Club with the fifth overall selection in the 2015 national draft. He was considered one of the best midfielders in the 2015 draft crop, showing tremendous form averaging 28 disposals at TAC Cup level (16 contested and 12 uncontested), plus seven clearances and five inside-50 entries, showing his all-round quality for the Geelong Falcons. He was named All-Australian in 2014 and backed it up with another selection after the 2015 AFL Under-18 Championships, and he was a member of the NAB AFL Academy squad. He made his debut in the opening round of the

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th 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 ...

against at

Metricon Stadium Carrara Stadium (also known as People First Stadium under naming rights) is a stadium on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Carrara, Queensland, Carrara. The stadium is primarily used for A ...

. He was rewarded with a nomination for the 2016 AFL Rising Star after he collected 21 disposals, 13 handball receives, eight tackles, and five inside-50s whilst kicking his first goal in the dying stages to seal a 13-point win against . He played 20 games in his debut season, polling 19 votes to finish fourth in the Ron Evans Medal. He was played mainly on the wing and as a forward over his first 5 years in the competition. Following a spate of injuries early in 2021 to Essendon midfielders, Parish was moved into the centre square. Parish's form suddenly skyrocketed as he became one of the most dominant midfielders in the league, winning best-on-ground medals in the

ANZAC Day match The Anzac Day match is an annual Australian rules football match between Collingwood Football Club, Collingwood and Essendon Football Club, Essendon, two clubs in the Australian Football League, held on Anzac Day (25 April) at the Melbourne Cr ...

Dreamtime at the 'G The Dreamtime at the 'G is an annual Australian rules football match between Australian Football League clubs and . Since the 2007 season the match has been held annually on the Saturday night of the AFL's " Indigenous Round", also known as t ...

, and the Country Game, the latter two being all the more impressive due to being earned in large defeats. He broke Essendon's all-time disposal record against

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 ...

, was named in the

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 ...

, and finished 5th in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

, recording 26 votes after only polling in 1 of his 93 games prior. Parish struggled to maintain that form over the next couple of seasons, as he was hampered by injuries, however he still polled 15 votes in the

2023 Brownlow Medal The 2023 Brownlow Medal was the 96th year the award was presented to the player adjudged the best and fairest player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home-and-away season. It was won by Lachie Neale for the second time, with 31 votes; ...

count. At the end of the 2023 season, he signed a 5 year extension with Essendon, to keep him at the club until the end of the 2028 season. 2024 was another injury interrupted season for Parish, only managing 12 games for the season.

Statistics

:''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2024 season'' , - ,

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 ...

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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 ...

, , , , 3 , 20 , , 7 , , 6 , , 195 , , 226 , , 421 , , 79 , , 65 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 9.8 , , 11.3 , , 21.1 , , 4.0 , , 3.3 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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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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 ...

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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 ...

, , , , 3 , 18 , , 3 , , 6 , , 271 , , 284 , , 555 , , 78 , , 77 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 15.1 , , 15.8 , , 30.8 , , 4.3 , , 4.3 , , 15 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 3 , 12 , , 2 , , 4 , , 146 , , 149 , , 295 , , 55 , , 52 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 12.2 , , 12.4 , , 24.6 , , 4.6 , , 4.3 , , 1 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 162 !! 55 !! 57 !! 1833 !! 2118 !! 3951 !! 569 !! 586 !! 0.3 !! 0.4 !! 11.3 !! 13.1 !! 24.4 !! 3.5 !! 3.6 !! 50 Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parish, Darcy 1997 births Living people Essendon Football Club players Geelong Falcons players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) All-Australians (AFL) 21st-century Australian sportsmen