Reilly O'Brien (born 20 August 1995) 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

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

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

Malcolm Blight Medal The Malcolm Blight Medal is a post-season award given to the best and fairest player for the Adelaide Football Club. The medal was first awarded in 1991, and later named after former Adelaide Crows coach Malcolm Blight. The voting system as o ...

winner in

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 ...

, he is currently Adelaide's first-choice ruckman.

Early life

O'Brien 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 ...

programs at Flemington Primary School in

Flemington, Victoria Flemington is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Moonee Valley local government areas. Flemington recorded a population of 7, ...

and at

Moonee Valley Football Club 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 ...

. He played his junior representative football with the

Calder Cannons The Calder Cannons is an Australian rules football club from Melbourne, Australia. The club competes in the Talent League, the Victorian Statewide Under-18s competition, and fields squads in the Under-15s, Under-16s and Under-18s. The club was f ...

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 ...

. He grew up in the

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 ...

suburb of

Ascot Vale Ascot Vale is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Ascot Vale recorded a population of 15,197 at the 2021 census ...

. O'Brien was drafted by the Adelaide Football Club with their first selection and ninth overall in the 2014 rookie draft.

AFL career

Reilly O'Brien made his debut in the 138-point win against the in round 20, 2016 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, ...

. He didn't play much football between 2016 and 2019, but broke into the side after Sam Jacobs sustained an injury. Jacobs was traded to at the end of the

2019 AFL season The 2019 AFL season was the 123rd 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 ...

, leaving O'Brien as Adelaide's primary ruckman going into the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th 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 ...

. O'Brien faced controversy when he accidentally

tweeted A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around ...

that ruckman

Nic Naitanui Nicholas Naitanui (; born 4 May 1990) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was born in Sydney to Fijians, Fijian parents, and his family moved to Perth, Western ...

is "lazy and unfit", attributing the mistake to a broken smartphone. Naitanui responded jestfully by gifting O'Brien a new phone after that weekend's game between their clubs. A stand-out in Adelaide's least successful season in their history, O'Brien thrived at every opportunity, winning the

in just his first season as the primary ruck. His fantastic form was rewarded with a contract extension to keep him at Adelaide until 2025. In

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 ...

, with Riley Thilthorpe as his back-up ruckman, O'Brien lead the competition for hit-outs. Part-way through

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 ...

, the struggling Crows chose to drop O'Brien to the

SANFL 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. ...

in favour of

Kieran Strachan Kieran Strachan (born 5 October 1995) is an Australian rules football, Australian rules footballer who plays for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Strachan was selected with the 7th pick in the 2018 AFL draft, ...

in an attempt to revive the club's season. O'Brien returned after two games on the sidelines, and still led the competition for hit-outs and average hit-outs by the conclusion of the season.

Statistics

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

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 ...

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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 ...

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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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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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, , , , 43 , 18 , , 2 , , 3 , , 132 , , 110 , , 242 , , 49 , , 77 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 898^† , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 6.3 , , 5.2 , , 11.5 , , 2.3 , , 3.7 , , bgcolor=CAE1FF , 42.8^† , , 2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 121 !! 14 !! 18 !! 753 !! 870 !! 1623 !! 367 !! 434 !! 4215 !! 0.1 !! 0.2 !! 6.2 !! 7.2 !! 13.4 !! 3.0 !! 3.6 !! 34.8 !! 17 Notes

Personal life

Outside of football O’Brien has completed a medical science degree at

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

. He has since undertaken post graduate study, both in business administration and public health through Torrens University. He has also completed postgraduate study in neuroscience through King’s College. O’Brien graduated from high school with an ATAR of 99.75. In

, O'Brien won the league-wide

Jim Stynes James Peter Stynes OAM (23 April 196620 March 2012) was an Irish footballer who converted from Gaelic football to Australian rules football and the first international player to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2003. ...

Community Leadership Award for his advocacy and community work for mental health in South Australia. After achieving automatic eligibility by playing 100 games over 10 years, O'Brien was granted Life Membership with the Adelaide Football Club.

References

External links

* * 1995 births Living people Adelaide Football Club players Calder Cannons players Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Coburg Football Club players Malcolm Blight Medal winners People educated at St Kevin's College, Melbourne People from Flemington, Victoria Flinders University alumni 21st-century Australian sportsmen Alumni of King's College London {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub