Karl Worner (born 16 June 2002) 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 who plays for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

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 career

Originally from

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 ...

, Karl played for the

Oakleigh Chargers The Oakleigh Chargers is an Australian rules football club playing in the Talent League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They are based at Warrawee Park in Oakleigh, Victoria, representing the ...

in the

Talent League 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 playing junior football for local club’s East Burwood Rams and Ashburton Redbacks. He also played school football for Carey Grammar. Although he was drafted in 2021, border restrictions due to the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

meant he was unable to travel from Victoria 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 ...

until February of the following year. He spent 2022 playing for Fremantle's reserve side, 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 ...

. Worner was impressive on debut collecting 31 disposals and kicking two goals against

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 ...

AFL career

Worner was selected by in their 1st selection and 8th overall in the 2022 rookie draft. In June 2023, Worner signed a 2-year contract extension keeping him at until the end of the 2025 AFL season. Worner made his debut for in Round 17 of the

2023 AFL season The 2023 AFL season was the 127th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 16 March to 30 September, comprising a 23-m ...

for their clash against . Worner started as the substitute and was substituted in for Matthew Johnson during the 3rd quarter. Worner finished his debut match with 7 disposals, a mark, and a tackle. After suffering a minor injury during his debut, Worner returned to the WAFL for a few weeks before coming back into the senior side to play the final 3 matches of the season for . Worner made the line-up for Fremantle's opening game of the

2024 AFL season The 2024 AFL season was the 128th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 7 March to 28 September, comprising ...

against the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

Optus Stadium Perth Stadium, commercially known as Optus Stadium due to sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the Burswood, Western Australia, Burswood suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It was completed during late 2017 and officially opened ...

, he played well collecting 12 disposals during the match. Unfortunately, Worner was knocked unconscious in the third quarter after an accidental collision with Lions player Lincoln McCarthy. He suffered a concussion which placed him under the AFL's mandatory concussion protocols, meaning he would miss at least one week of football. He would make his return through the WAFL, and returned to the Dockers line-up in round fourteen against the at

Marvel Stadium Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics * ...

, as a late replacement for

Heath Chapman Heath Chapman (born 31 January 2002) is an Australian rules football player who plays for the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early career Chapman played junior football for the Joondalup Kinross Junior Football Clu ...

. Worner signed a two-year contract extension in late July of 2025, tying him to Fremantle until at least the end of 2027.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of round 20, 2025''. , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 40 , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ,

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 ...

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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 ...

, , , , 23 , 4 , , 0 , , 0 , , 18 , , 20 , , 38 , , 11 , , 4 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 4.5 , , 5.0 , , 9.5 , , 2.8 , , 1.0 , - ,

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

, , , , 23 , 18 , , 0 , , 2 , , 140 , , 107 , , 247 , , 73 , , 33 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 7.7 , , 5.9 , , 13.7 , , 4.0 , , 1.8 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 26 !! 0 !! 3 !! 181 !! 148 !! 329 !! 96 !! 38 !! 0.0 !! 0.1 !! 6.9 !! 5.6 !! 12.6 !! 3.6 !! 1.4

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Worner, Karl 2002 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Oakleigh Chargers players Fremantle Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players 21st-century Australian sportsmen People educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School