Darcy Vescio (born 3 August 1993) 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er playing for the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Mel ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

competition. As a heavily marketed marquee player, Vescio has been referred to as a "household name" in Australia by ESPN.

Junior and state league football

Vescio began playing football with their brother at the age of five. Vescio was a participant in the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian rules football (AFL) to boys and girls 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 pro ...

program. They stopped playing competitive football at the age of fourteen, when they were no longer allowed to play with the youth boys team. Vescio started playing again at the age of eighteen, when they moved to Melbourne from their home town of

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

and joined the

Darebin Falcons The Darebin Women's Sports Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is based in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and primarily notable for its Australian rules football team which competes in the highest-level Victorian state league – the VFL Women's (VF ...

in the

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of ove ...

(VWFL). They won four premierships with the club in consecutive seasons from 2013 to 2016, and won the Lisa Hardeman Medal for

best on ground In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

performances in two of these matches in 2015 and 2016. Vescio has represented Victoria at the

AFL Women's National Championship The AFL Women's National Championship was the premier national and international competition in Women's Australian rules football. The championship was held every year between 1992 and 2015. The tournament was organised by the sport's governing ...

in 2013 and 2015. They were drafted by the in 2014, and played for the club in exhibition series matches between 2014 and 2016. In 2018, Vescio played VFLW with the Carlton Football Club and won the club's best and fairest. In the final round of the season, Vescio kicked 9 goals to claim the league's leading goal kicking award.

AFL Women's career

Vescio was signed as a marquee player by in July 2016, ahead of the league's inaugural 2017 season. They made their debut in round 1,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, in the club and the league's inaugural match at

IKON Park Princes Park (or Carlton Recreation Ground, currently known by its sponsored name Ikon Park) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the wider Princes Park in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. It is a historic venue, ...

against . They kicked a game-high four goals in the match, which was more than Collingwood's overall team score. This was acknowledged by the

AFL Players Association The AFL Players Association (AFL PA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players. The AFL PA promotes and protects its membe ...

, highlighting Vescio as Player of the Week. At the conclusion of the 2017 season, Vescio was the AFLW leading goalkicker, was nominated by their teammates for the AFLW Players’ Most Valuable Player Award, and was listed in the 2017 All-Australian team. Their mark in front of goal in round five against was voted by fans as Mark of the Year. Carlton signed Vescio for the 2018 season during the trade period in May 2017. They played in all seven of Carlton's matches that season and kicked five goals, tying

Tayla Harris Tayla Harris (born 16 April 1997) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and professional boxer. She previously played football for and . Early life and amateur career Harris was bo ...

and sharing the club's leading goalkicker award with her. For the 2019 season, Vescio was elevated to the leadership group alongside Shae Audley, Kerryn Harrington and

Sarah Hosking Sarah Hosking (born 2 December 1995) is an Australian rules footballer with the Richmond Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Carlton Football Club from 2017 to 2020. Hosking represented Victoria in the inaug ...

, with Bri Davey serving as captain and

Katie Loynes Katie Loynes (born 23 March 1986) is a retired Australian rules footballer who played for Carlton and Greater Western Sydney in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. AFLW career Loynes was drafted by Carlton with the club's fourteenth select ...

as vice-captain. They signed a 2 year contract with on 10 June 2021, after it was revealed the team had conducted a mass re-signing of 13 players. Vescio was awarded with their second

All-Australian 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-perf ...

blazer, named on the interchange bench. Vescio achieved selection in Champion Data's 2021 AFLW All-Star stats team, after leading the league for goals in the

2021 AFL Women's season The 2021 AFL Women's season was the fifth season of the AFL Women's competition, the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured fourteen clubs, ran from 28 January until 17 April, and comprised ...

, totalling 1.8 a game.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2021 season' , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 3 , , 7 , , bgcolor=FA8072 , 14^§ , , 4 , , 39 , , 11 , , 50 , , 13 , , 18 , , bgcolor=FA8072 , 2.0^§ , , 0.6 , , 5.6 , , 1.6 , , 7.1 , , 1.9 , , 2.6 , , 7 , - , scope="row" text-align:center ,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, , 3 , , 7 , , 5 , , 6 , , 38 , , 9 , , 47 , , 5 , , 17 , , 0.7 , , 0.9 , , 5.4 , , 1.3 , , 6.7 , , 0.7 , , 2.4 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, , 3 , , 9 , , 5 , , 10 , , 50 , , 31 , , 81 , , 17 , , 13 , , 0.6 , , 1.1 , , 5.6 , , 3.4 , , 9.0 , , 1.9 , , 1.4 , , 0 , - , scope="row" text-align:center ,

2020 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 events, COVID- ...

, , 3 , , 7 , , 3 , , 1 , , 50 , , 26 , , 76 , , 16 , , 15 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 7.1 , , 3.7 , , 10.9 , , 2.3 , , 2.1 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, , 3 , , 9 , , bgcolor=FA8072 , 16^§ , , 4 , , 56 , , 26 , , 82 , , 28 , , 16 , , bgcolor=FA8072 , 1.8^§ , , 0.4 , , 6.2 , , 2.9 , , 9.1 , , 3.1 , , 1.8 , , , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 39 ! 44 ! 27 ! 233 ! 103 ! 336 ! 79 ! 79 ! 1.1 ! 0.7 ! 6.0 ! 2.6 ! 8.6 ! 2.0 ! 2.0 ! 7

Personal life

Vescio previously worked part-time at the Carlton Football Club as a graphic designer. They were responsible for designing the club's inaugural women's guernsey and pride guernsey. They were born and raised in the Victorian town of Markwood near Wangaratta and attended school at Wangaratta High School. Vescio is of Italian and Chinese heritage and is an AFL Multicultural Ambassador. In 2018, the Carlton Football Club made a documentary, ''Bloodlines: Darcy Vescio'', which focused on Vescio's dual heritage. On 29 December 2021, Vescio publicly came out as

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

and announced the decision to change their gender pronouns to

they/them Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentence ...

, expressing that " aring this feels a bit daunting but brings me a lot of warmth and happiness".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vescio, Darcy 1993 births Living people All-Australians (AFL Women's) Australian graphic designers Australian people of Chinese descent Australian people of Italian descent Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Carlton Football Club (AFLW) players Darebin Falcons players Non-binary sportspeople People from Wangaratta Sportswomen from Victoria (Australia)