Darren Jolly (born 6 November 1981) is a former 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 who played for 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 ...

, the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

and the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...

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 best known for being the ruckman in Sydney's 2005 premiership win and also Collingwood's 2010 premiership win.

Junior career

After completing his schooling at Damascus College Ballarat in 1996,
Damascus College, The Road, Autumn 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2015 and playing for the

North Ballarat Rebels The Greater Western Victoria Rebels is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Talent League, the statewide under-18s competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They recruit players from the Ballarat, Wimmera and Sou ...

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 ...

, Jolly spent a year playing for the

North Ballarat Football Club The North Ballarat Football Club, nicknamed the Roosters, is an Australian rules football and netball club based at Mars Stadium in Ballarat. The club was founded in 1882 and has competed in the Ballarat Football Netball League (BFNL), and pr ...

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) before being drafted by the

in the 2001 Rookie Draft.

Melbourne

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

Sydney

The Demons traded Jolly to Sydney in 2004 for pick 15 in that year's 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. This run was cut in early 2011 due to an injury suffered playing for Collingwood. In the early hours of 29 September – one day before the Swans played in the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austral ...

– Jolly's wife Deanne gave birth to the couple's first child, Scarlett, which brought relief to coach Paul Roos.

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. Collingwood securing a trade in exchange for picks number 14 and 46 in the

2009 AFL Draft The 2009 AFL draft consisted of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2009/10 Australian Football League off-season. These were the trade week (held between 5 October and 9 October), the national draft (held on 26 November), the ...

. Jolly became Collingwood's number one ruckman, and in 2010 was named in the 40-man

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 ...

squad, but did not make the final team. Jolly's first two seasons at Collingwood mirrored his first two seasons with the Swans: he was part of Collingwood's premiership team in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, then part of its losing Grand Final team in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. Jolly played his 200th AFL game in round 19, 2011. He was delisted by Collingwood at the conclusion of the

2013 AFL season The 2013 AFL season was the 117th 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 ...

Personal life

Jolly and ex-wife Deanne have two daughters. After being delisted by the Magpies, Darren and Dea competed in the ninth season of '' The Block'', a reality television series that follows couples as they compete to renovate a house. They returned for the tenth season of ''The Block'' in 2015, and ultimately won the 2015 series. They have since separated.

Statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, , 41 , , 4 , , 0 , , 1 , , 5 , , 5 , , 10 , , 2 , , 2 , , 14 , , 0.0 , , 0.3 , , 1.3 , , 1.3 , , 2.6 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 3.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, , 11 , , 18 , , 7 , , 1 , , 46 , , 39 , , 85 , , 27 , , 16 , , 100 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 2.6 , , 2.2 , , 4.7 , , 1.5 , , 0.9 , , 5.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, , 11 , , 19 , , 4 , , 0 , , 72 , , 66 , , 138 , , 47 , , 24 , , 260 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 3.8 , , 3.5 , , 7.3 , , 2.5 , , 1.3 , , 13.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, , 11 , , 7 , , 0 , , 0 , , 16 , , 8 , , 24 , , 11 , , 5 , , 44 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.3 , , 1.1 , , 3.4 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 6.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, , 16 , , 24 , , 10 , , 4 , , 110 , , 75 , , 185 , , 64 , , 42 , , 442 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 4.6 , , 3.1 , , 7.7 , , 2.7 , , 1.8 , , 18.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, , 16 , , 25 , , 2 , , 5 , , 141 , , 68 , , 209 , , 55 , , 46 , , 605 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 5.6 , , 2.7 , , 8.4 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , , 24.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, , 16 , , 23 , , 16 , , 7 , , 162 , , 65 , , 227 , , 95 , , 46 , , 458 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 7.0 , , 2.8 , , 9.9 , , 4.1 , , 2.0 , , 19.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, , 16 , , 24 , , 15 , , 11 , , 160 , , 111 , , 271 , , 105 , , 47 , , 543 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 6.7 , , 4.6 , , 11.3 , , 4.4 , , 2.0 , , 22.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, , 16 , , 22 , , 16 , , 12 , , 134 , , 127 , , 261 , , 92 , , 61 , , 682 , , 0.7 , , 0.5 , , 6.1 , , 5.8 , , 11.9 , , 4.2 , , 2.8 , , 31.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 18 , , 26 , , 24 , , 10 , , 172 , , 155 , , 327 , , 131 , , 58 , , 579 , , 0.9 , , 0.4 , , 6.6 , , 6.0 , , 12.6 , , 5.0 , , 2.2 , , 22.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 18 , , 16 , , 12 , , 4 , , 74 , , 100 , , 174 , , 51 , , 60 , , 383 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 4.6 , , 6.3 , , 10.9 , , 3.2 , , 3.8 , , 23.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, , 18 , , 20 , , 12 , , 4 , , 94 , , 124 , , 218 , , 58 , , 72 , , 649 , , 0.6 , , 0.2 , , 4.7 , , 6.2 , , 10.9 , , 2.9 , , 3.6 , , 32.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, , 18 , , 9 , , 4 , , 4 , , 48 , , 58 , , 106 , , 40 , , 32 , , 209 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 5.3 , , 6.4 , , 11.8 , , 4.4 , , 3.6 , , 23.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 237 ! 122 ! 63 ! 1234 ! 1001 ! 2235 ! 778 ! 511 ! 4968 ! 0.5 ! 0.3 ! 5.2 ! 4.2 ! 9.4 ! 3.3 ! 2.2 ! 21.0

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jolly, Darren 1981 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club premiership players Melbourne Football Club players North Ballarat Football Club players Sydney Swans players Sydney Swans premiership players Participants in Australian reality television series VFL/AFL premiership players