Darren Jolly (born 6 November 1981) is a former professional

Australian rules footballer 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 ...

who played for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

, 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 ...

and the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

in 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 ...

(AFL). He is best known for being the ruckman in Sydney's 2005 premiership win and also Collingwood's 2010 premiership win.

Junior career

After completing his schooling at

Damascus College Ballarat , motto_translation = To live by the light of Christ , religious_affiliation = , denomination = Roman Catholic, Sisters of Mercy , patron = , established = 1881 ( Sacred Heart)1948 ( St ...

in 1996,
Damascus College, The Road, Autumn 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2015 and playing for the

North Ballarat Rebels The Greater Western Victoria Rebels is an Australian rules football club which plays in the NAB League, the statewide under-18s competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Initially known as the Ballarat Rebels and wearing green an ...

in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

, Jolly spent a year playing for the

North Ballarat Football Club North Ballarat Football & Netball Club, nicknamed ''The Roosters'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based at Mars Stadium in Ballarat. The club currently fields senior, reserve and Under 19 sides in the Ballarat Football Leagu ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) before being drafted by the

in the 2001 Rookie Draft.

Melbourne

He played 48 games over four seasons for Melbourne, mainly as an understudy to Jeff White.

Sydney

The Demons traded Jolly to Sydney in 2004 for pick 15 in that year's national draft. Along with Jason Ball, in 2005 he was an integral part of Sydney's ruck division and after the retirement of Ball, assumed the number one ruck role at Sydney. During his time at the Swans Jolly only missed two games, stemming from a suspension following an incident against his old club Melbourne. This run was cut in early 2011 due to an injury suffered playing for Collingwood. In the early hours of 29 September – one day before the Swans played in the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austral ...

– Jolly's wife Deanne gave birth to the couple's first child, Scarlett, which brought relief to coach Paul Roos, as Jolly had said he would not play in the Grand Final if his wife was to give birth on the day of the game.

Collingwood

At the end of the 2009 season, Jolly requested a trade be done so he could return to his native Victoria with his family. Many clubs expressed initial interest in securing the senior ruckman, with Collingwood securing a trade in exchange for picks number 14 and 46 in the 2009 AFL Draft. Jolly immediately became Collingwood's number one ruckman, and in 2010 was named in the 40-man

All-Australian team 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 ...

squad, but did not make the final team. Even though he did not make All Australian he was chose by BT in his team of the Year Jolly's first two seasons at Collingwood mirrored his first two seasons with the Swans: he was part of Collingwood's premiership team in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, then part of its losing Grand Final team in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. Jolly played his 200th AFL game in round 19, 2011. He was delisted by Collingwood at the conclusion of the

2013 AFL season The 2013 AFL season was the 117th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eigh ...

Personal life

Jolly and his ex-wife Deanne have two daughters. After being delisted by the Magpies, he and ex-wife competed in the ninth season of '' The Block'', a reality television series that follows couples as they compete to renovate a house. They returned for the tenth season of ''The Block'' in 2015, and ultimately won the 2015 series. As of 20 September 2019 Darren has left Deanne.

Statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, , 41 , , 4 , , 0 , , 1 , , 5 , , 5 , , 10 , , 2 , , 2 , , 14 , , 0.0 , , 0.3 , , 1.3 , , 1.3 , , 2.6 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 3.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, , 11 , , 18 , , 7 , , 1 , , 46 , , 39 , , 85 , , 27 , , 16 , , 100 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 2.6 , , 2.2 , , 4.7 , , 1.5 , , 0.9 , , 5.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, , 11 , , 19 , , 4 , , 0 , , 72 , , 66 , , 138 , , 47 , , 24 , , 260 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 3.8 , , 3.5 , , 7.3 , , 2.5 , , 1.3 , , 13.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, , 11 , , 7 , , 0 , , 0 , , 16 , , 8 , , 24 , , 11 , , 5 , , 44 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.3 , , 1.1 , , 3.4 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 6.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, , 16 , , 24 , , 10 , , 4 , , 110 , , 75 , , 185 , , 64 , , 42 , , 442 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 4.6 , , 3.1 , , 7.7 , , 2.7 , , 1.8 , , 18.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , 16 , , 25 , , 2 , , 5 , , 141 , , 68 , , 209 , , 55 , , 46 , , 605 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 5.6 , , 2.7 , , 8.4 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , , 24.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, , 16 , , 23 , , 16 , , 7 , , 162 , , 65 , , 227 , , 95 , , 46 , , 458 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 7.0 , , 2.8 , , 9.9 , , 4.1 , , 2.0 , , 19.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, , 16 , , 24 , , 15 , , 11 , , 160 , , 111 , , 271 , , 105 , , 47 , , 543 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 6.7 , , 4.6 , , 11.3 , , 4.4 , , 2.0 , , 22.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, , 16 , , 22 , , 16 , , 12 , , 134 , , 127 , , 261 , , 92 , , 61 , , 682 , , 0.7 , , 0.5 , , 6.1 , , 5.8 , , 11.9 , , 4.2 , , 2.8 , , 31.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 18 , , 26 , , 24 , , 10 , , 172 , , 155 , , 327 , , 131 , , 58 , , 579 , , 0.9 , , 0.4 , , 6.6 , , 6.0 , , 12.6 , , 5.0 , , 2.2 , , 22.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 18 , , 16 , , 12 , , 4 , , 74 , , 100 , , 174 , , 51 , , 60 , , 383 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 4.6 , , 6.3 , , 10.9 , , 3.2 , , 3.8 , , 23.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , 18 , , 20 , , 12 , , 4 , , 94 , , 124 , , 218 , , 58 , , 72 , , 649 , , 0.6 , , 0.2 , , 4.7 , , 6.2 , , 10.9 , , 2.9 , , 3.6 , , 32.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, , 18 , , 9 , , 4 , , 4 , , 48 , , 58 , , 106 , , 40 , , 32 , , 209 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 5.3 , , 6.4 , , 11.8 , , 4.4 , , 3.6 , , 23.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 237 ! 122 ! 63 ! 1234 ! 1001 ! 2235 ! 778 ! 511 ! 4968 ! 0.5 ! 0.3 ! 5.2 ! 4.2 ! 9.4 ! 3.3 ! 2.2 ! 21.0

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jolly, Darren 1981 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club Premiership players Melbourne Football Club players North Ballarat Football Club players Sydney Swans players Sydney Swans Premiership players Participants in Australian reality television series Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players