Luke McPharlin (born 1 December 1981) is a former 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played 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) for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, 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 represent the port city of ...

between 2002 and 2015, after two seasons with the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

. Throughout his AFL career, McPharlin predominantly played as a key defender.

AFL career

McPharlin was recruited from

East Fremantle East or Orient 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 fa ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

to the

after being taken at Pick 10 in the 1999

AFL Draft The Australian Football League draft is the annual draft of unsigned players, especially new nominations, by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League (AFL). History ...

. He made his debut in 2000, kicking a goal with his first kick, but played just 12 total games in his first two seasons at Hawthorn. Feeling home sick in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, McPharlin jumped at the chance of returning to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, and was subsequently traded to Fremantle following the 2001 season. McPharlin battled injury early on in his career, managing just over 50 games in his first five seasons.Luke McPharlin 200 AFL Games
/ref> In 2005, McPharlin garnered

Mark of the Year The annual Australian Football League Mark of the Year competition (currently also known as the Four'N Twenty AFL Mark of the Year) is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best mark. A mark is the action of a player cleanly catchin ...

honours for his spectacular chestmark against the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

in Round Three. McPharlin played his 200th AFL game in Round 13, 2012 against

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

. That season, he was named in the

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 ...

as a defender. In 2013, McPharlin helped lead Fremantle to their first ever

AFL Grand Final The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...

appearance, where they were defeated by Hawthorn by 15 points, ending the club's best season in their 19-year history just short of their first premiership success. McPharlin struggled to play regularly in 2013 and 2014 with calf and achilles-related issues, managing just 29 games over those two seasons. He also did not feature in Fremantle's finals campaigns in 2014 and 2015 due to calf problems. On 30 September 2015, McPharlin announced his retirement from the AFL after 256 games and 16 seasons in the league. McPharlin departed Fremantle sitting second on the club's games record list with 244, behind only

Matthew Pavlich Matthew Pavlich (born 31 December 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A versatile player, Pavlich is widely regarded as one of the premi ...

who retired on 353.

Personal life

McPharlin was the lead guitarist and singer of a Baháʼí Youth Music outfit, "Calling, Waiting, Searching". His musical skills led him to win The Footy Show's musical contest ''Screamers'' in 2005. On 24 July 2011, it was announced that McPharlin would release his debut album later that year in collaboration with local Perth act ''Stella's Kitchen''. He was educated at

Christ Church Grammar School , motto_translation = God is our leader, learning is our light , established = , founder = William Joseph McClemans , type = Independent single-sex early learning, primary, and secondary day and boarding school , gender = Boys , deno ...

where he graduated in 1999. McPharlin and his wife, Kalinz, have two daughters. After retiring from football McPharlin and his family moved to Broome where he works as a

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

. As of 2022, he and his family have moved back to Perth and now live in Beaconsfield. He was recently interviewed in the Mind and Soul Matters Podcast where he talks candidly about the struggles he faced early in his football career, and also about his beliefs and faith.

Statistics

:Luke McPharlin's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

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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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 8 , , 2 , , 2 , , 44 , , 33 , , 77 , , 35 , , 4 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 5.5 , , 4.1 , , 9.6 , , 4.4 , , 0.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 11 , , 7 , , 4 , , 92 , , 58 , , 150 , , 58 , , 19 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 8.4 , , 5.3 , , 13.6 , , 5.3 , , 1.7 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 12 , , 0 , , 2 , , 108 , , 64 , , 172 , , 77 , , 25 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 9.0 , , 5.3 , , 14.3 , , 6.4 , , 2.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 16 , , 4 , , 1 , , 173 , , 73 , , 246 , , 106 , , 28 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 10.8 , , 4.6 , , 15.4 , , 6.6 , , 1.8 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 19 , , 34 , , 12 , , 144 , , 56 , , 200 , , 104 , , 24 , , 1.8 , , 0.6 , , 7.6 , , 3.0 , , 10.5 , , 5.5 , , 1.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 22 , , 15 , , 9 , , 184 , , 62 , , 246 , , 144 , , 27 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 8.4 , , 2.8 , , 11.2 , , 6.6 , , 1.2 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 21 , , 8 , , 1 , , 173 , , 124 , , 297 , , 152 , , 38 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 8.2 , , 5.9 , , 14.1 , , 7.2 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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; ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 20 , , 21 , , 14 , , 192 , , 105 , , 297 , , 142 , , 30 , , 1.0 , , 0.7 , , 9.6 , , 5.2 , , 14.8 , , 7.1 , , 1.5 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 18 , , 20 , , 18 , , 150 , , 90 , , 240 , , 102 , , 24 , , 1.1 , , 1.0 , , 8.3 , , 5.0 , , 13.3 , , 5.7 , , 1.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 17 , , 0 , , 3 , , 138 , , 116 , , 254 , , 97 , , 29 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 8.1 , , 6.8 , , 14.9 , , 5.7 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 20 , , 1 , , 1 , , 191 , , 116 , , 307 , , 129 , , 35 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.6 , , 5.8 , , 15.4 , , 6.4 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 21 , , 1 , , 2 , , 230 , , 119 , , 349 , , 171 , , 28 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 11.0 , , 5.7 , , 16.6 , , 8.1 , , 1.3 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 16 , , 0 , , 0 , , 195 , , 71 , , 266 , , 137 , , 21 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 12.2 , , 4.4 , , 16.6 , , 8.6 , , 1.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 13 , , 1 , , 0 , , 132 , , 79 , , 211 , , 93 , , 12 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 10.2 , , 6.1 , , 16.2 , , 7.2 , , 0.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 18 , , 0 , , 0 , , 169 , , 114 , , 283 , , 124 , , 17 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.4 , , 6.3 , , 15.7 , , 6.9 , , 0.9 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 256 ! 115 ! 72 ! 2326 ! 1287 ! 3613 ! 1677 ! 361 ! 0.4 ! 0.3 ! 9.1 ! 5.0 ! 14.1 ! 6.6 ! 1.4

References

External links

* *
Luke McPharlin's
profile on the Official WAFL Website {{DEFAULTSORT:McPharlin, Luke 1981 births 20th-century Bahá'ís 21st-century Bahá'ís Living people All-Australians (AFL) Australian Bahá'ís East Fremantle Football Club players Fremantle Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia People educated at Christ Church Grammar School