Troy Luff (born 22 November 1969) is a former

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er for 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 reser ...

of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

Football career

Troy Luff grew up in the town of

Traralgon, Victoria Traralgon ( ) is a town located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia and the most populous city of the City of Latrobe. The urban population of Traralgon at the was 26,907. It is ...

, where he lived until high school age. He played junior football with the Cumberland Park Club before shifting with his family to

Nelson Bay, New South Wales Nelson Bay is a significant township of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on a bay of the same name on the southern shore of Port Stephens about by road north-east of Ne ...

. In 1989 with 70 goals he was the leading goalkicker in the Newcastle AFL for Nelson Bay. In his early career, Luff was delisted and re-drafted twice before the age of 26, and was considered again at the start of his breakout year, 1996, by coach

Rodney Eade Rodney Eade (born 4 April 1958) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach in the Australian Football League. He is a former coach of the Sydney Swans, the Western Bulldogs and the Gold Coast Football Club. He has, to date, coached 377 g ...

1996 season

Luff was retained, where he became best known for his stand-out performances in the

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

AFL Finals series, culminating in a near best on ground effort in the

1996 AFL