Luke Blackwell (born 9 November 1986 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

) 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. He formerly played for Carlton 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), and for

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth * Town of Claremont, Perth * Claremont Airbase, an ...

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) where he was the winner of the 2011

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant an ...

Early life

Blackwell was born in

, and moved to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

at an early age when his father, Wayne Blackwell, was appointed coach of Portland Football Club in the

Western Border Football League The Limestone Coast Football Netball League is an Australian rules football competition based in the Limestone Coast, Lower South East region of South Australia, and south-western border region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It is an affili ...

(WBFL). His family moved back to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in 1993, where Blackwell attended Mazenod College, Perth and later coached

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

from 1996 to 1998 and

East Fremantle East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

in 2000. His father also played for Claremont and Carlton.Luke Blackwell
– Blueseum. Last updated 30 May 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2011.

AFL career

Blackwell was recruited from by Carlton in the 2004 AFL Draft as the number 41 draft pick, under the

father–son rule The father–son rule is a rule that allows clubs preferential recruiting access to the sons of players who have made a major past contribution to the club in Australian rules football, most notably in the Australian Football League. The rule ...

, being the son of former Carlton midfielder Wayne Blackwell. Luke Blackwell made his AFL debut in Round 8, 2006 against . Blackwell spent most of the 2005 season playing for the

Northern Bullants The Northern Bullants are a semi-professional Australian rules football club that currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The club, which is based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, plays its home games at Preston City Ov ...

, Carlton's , playing mainly as a midfielder, before his season was ended by a broken jaw. He began to break his way into the Carlton side in 2006, with his best game being the Round 13 clash against Brisbane, where he gathered 26 possessions and received two votes 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 ...

. He played ten of the last eleven games of the season. In his last two seasons with Carlton, Blackwell was in and out of the senior team and was de-listed at the end of the 2008 season.

WAFL career

Blackwell returned to Western Australia in 2009, joining the

Claremont Football Club The Claremont Football Club, nicknamed Tigers, is an Australian rules football club based in Claremont, Western Australia, that currently plays in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). Its official colours are na ...

. He found more consistent form, winning the EB Cook Medal as Claremont's

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 ...

in both 2009 and 2010. He was also 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 ...

as best on ground for WAFL representative side against 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) in 2010, gathering 37 disposals. Blackwell won the 2011

for the

fairest and best 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 ...

player in the WAFL, polling 42 votes; he had been runner-up in for the award in 2010, losing to

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 ...

Andrew Krakouer Andrew James Krakouer (4 February 1983 – 30 March 2025) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Krakouer was born in Melb ...

. Blackwell was part of Claremont's 2011 premiership team, his first senior premiership. He again won the EB Cook Medal for Claremont's best and fairest, for a third consecutive time. He was named in Claremont's "Greatest Ever Team", which was announced in late 2013. He left Claremont at the end of 2014, returning to Victoria where he joined

Essendon District Football League The Essendon District Football League (EDFL) is a semi-professional Australian rules football league competition based in Essendon, Victoria, consisting of teams based in the north-west suburbs of Melbourne. Founded in 1930, the men's competi ...

club

Aberfeldie Aberfeldie is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Aberfeldie recorded a population of 3,925 at the . Aberfeld ...

. He played with Aberfeldie from 2015 until 2019, where he won the Reynolds Medal as premier division best and fairest in 2016, two Reg Rose Medals as best on ground in the grand final (2017 and 2018), and a total of three premierships, before retiring at the end of 2019.

References

External links

* * *
Luke Blackwell profile in Blueseum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwell, Luke 1986 births Carlton Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club players Claremont Football Club players Northern Bullants players Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Sandover Medal winners Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian people of English descent 21st-century Australian sportsmen