Michael Kevin O'Loughlin (born 20 February 1977) 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 his entire

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 ...

career with 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 ...

. O'Loughlin was named a member of the

Indigenous Team of the Century The Indigenous Team of the Century (Australian rules football) was selected to recognise the role of Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the eth ...

. He was the third player with Indigenous heritage to play 300 AFL games. He twice achieved All-Australian selection, played for Australia twice in the International Rules Series, and was a

Fos Williams Medal The Fos Williams Medal has been awarded since 1981 to the best Australian rules football player from South Australia during Inter-State or Inter-Competition matches. The medal is named in honour of legendary South Australian National Football Le ...

list as best player for South Australia in State of Origin. O'Loughlin was the first Sydney Swans player to play more than 300 career games. In 303 games he kicked 521 career goals.

Early life

His parents never married, so he was given his mother's maiden name of O'Loughlin, which came from her Irish great-great-great-grandfather. O'Loughlin's ancestors were Czech Jews, Aboriginal Australian ( Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri), Irish and English. He grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, and first played junior football with Central District in the SANFL.

AFL career

O'Loughlin marks in the pocket, Syd v PA 2009 (3558524391) (cropped)

Selected in the third round of the 1994

National 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 W ...

, O'Loughlin played 12 senior games for the Swans in 1995 and earned an

AFL Rising Star award The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan ...

nomination. The following year, he was a key player in the team that won the minor premiership and then lost to North Melbourne in the grand final. He was the games record holder for the Swans, passing

John Rantall John "Mopsy" Rantall (born 9 December 1943) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the South Melbourne Football Club, North Melbourne Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). A lightly- ...

's VFL/AFL record in Round 14 of the 2007 season and Bill Windley's 102-year-old overall club record in the Elimination Final of that year, until he was overtaken by his cousin Adam Goodes. He became the first Sydney Swans/South Melbourne player to break the 300 games milestone in Round 19, 2009. O'Loughlin played the majority of his early football in a half-forward flanker role, where his combination of speed, strength and agility made him a difficult player for opposing teams to match up against. He was known by the nickname "Magic" throughout his career, in recognition of his capacity to play football so skillfully that it could sometimes seem he had "cast a spell" on his opponents. He was also known by the nickname, "Micky O". In the latter part of his career, he was primarily used as Sydney's full-forward. In 2000 and 2001, he was the club's leading goalkicker. He was club

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

in 1998 and runner-up in 2000. He was selected in the All Australian Team in 1997 and 2000. When State of Origin matches were still being played, he represented his state on several occasions, receiving the

for best South Australian player in 1998. In 2005, he was selected alongside Sydney Swans teammate and cousin Adam Goodes in the

. O'Loughlin was chosen in the full-forward position. He described this honor as the highlight of his career, alongside the 2005 premiership. O'Loughlin, the only player remaining in the team from the 1996 loss, played strongly during the 2005 grand final, including a number of exceptional marks. However, and uncharacteristically, his kicking for goal during the game was inaccurate. In 2006, O'Loughlin continued to be a key part of the Swans' line-up, including playing a decisive role in the qualifying and preliminary finals that put the Swans into the grand final for the second consecutive year. In the close qualifying Final against the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval, O'Loughlin ran into an open goal, then carried on to the fence and roared into the faces of some rather stunned-looking Eagles' fans from a few inches away. The moment is captured in Jamie Cooper's painting ''the Game That Made Australia'', commissioned by the AFL in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport. In the 2006 Grand Final, O'Loughlin played well, kicking 3.1 (19). He continued to play consistently well for Sydney through the balance of his career. On 23 June 2009, O'Loughlin announced that at the end of the 2009 season he would retire. He played his 300th game in round 19 at the MCG against the

Richmond Tigers The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

Career achievements

* AFL Rising Star nominee 1995 *

Bob Skilton Medal The Bob Skilton Medal is an annual Australian rules football award presented to the player(s) adjudged the best and fairest at the Sydney Swans (formerly the South Melbourne Football Club) throughout the Victorian Football League/Australian Footb ...

1998 * All-Australian 1997, 2000 * International Rules Series 1997, 2000 *

1998 *Sydney Swans Leading goalkicker 2000, 2001 *Sydney Swans Premiership player 2005 *Outstanding achievement in AFL 2005 (

The Deadlys The Deadly Awards, commonly known simply as The Deadlys, was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. The event was held from 1995 to 2013. Description T ...

) *

*Outstanding achievement in AFL 2009 (The Deadlys)Vibe, Vibe Alive, The Deadlys, GJC, 3 on 3
. Vibe.com.au (19 May 2012). Retrieved 3 June 2012. *Male Sportsperson of the Year 2009 (The Deadlys)

Statistics

: ''*10 games required to be eligible.'' , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;",

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, 38 , , 11 , , 12 , , 4 , , 62 , , 52 , , 114 , , 24 , , 16 , , 1.1 , , 0.4 , , 5.6 , , 4.7 , , 10.4 , , 2.2 , , 1.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 25 , , 21 , , 14 , , 228 , , 153 , , 381 , , 109 , , 45 , , 0.8 , , 0.6 , , 9.1 , , 6.1 , , 15.2 , , 4.4 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 23 , , 26 , , 14 , , 270 , , 117 , , 387 , , 85 , , 41 , , 1.1 , , 0.6 , , 11.7 , , 5.1 , , 16.8 , , 3.7 , , 1.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 24 , , 40 , , 25 , , 289 , , 130 , , 419 , , 129 , , 28 , , 1.7 , , 1.0 , , 12.0 , , 5.4 , , 17.5 , , 5.4 , , 1.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 18 , , 26 , , 18 , , 167 , , 69 , , 236 , , 81 , , 20 , , 1.4 , , 1.0 , , 9.3 , , 3.8 , , 13.1 , , 4.5 , , 1.1 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 22 , , 53 , , 24 , , 282 , , 122 , , 404 , , 142 , , 23 , , 2.4 , , 1.1 , , 12.8 , , 5.5 , , 18.4 , , 6.5 , , 1.0 , - 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 23 , , 35 , , 29 , , 279 , , 111 , , 390 , , 128 , , 36 , , 1.5 , , 1.3 , , 12.1 , , 4.8 , , 17.0 , , 5.6 , , 1.6 , - ! 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;", , 19 , , 19 , , 30 , , 11 , , 181 , , 106 , , 287 , , 92 , , 33 , , 1.6 , , 0.6 , , 9.5 , , 5.6 , , 15.1 , , 4.8 , , 1.7 , - style="background:#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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 16 , , 41 , , 20 , , 132 , , 55 , , 187 , , 90 , , 16 , , 2.6 , , 1.3 , , 8.3 , , 3.4 , , 11.7 , , 5.6 , , 1.0 , - ! 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;", , 19 , , 18 , , 38 , , 18 , , 144 , , 40 , , 184 , , 99 , , 19 , , 2.1 , , 1.0 , , 8.0 , , 2.2 , , 10.2 , , 5.5 , , 1.1 , - style="background:#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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 23 , , 52 , , 26 , , 188 , , 68 , , 256 , , 104 , , 30 , , 2.3 , , 1.1 , , 8.2 , , 3.0 , , 11.1 , , 4.5 , , 1.3 , - ! 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;", , 19 , , 25 , , 47 , , 32 , , 219 , , 82 , , 301 , , 138 , , 37 , , 1.9 , , 1.3 , , 8.8 , , 3.3 , , 12.0 , , 5.5 , , 1.5 , - style="background:#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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 23 , , 40 , , 14 , , 182 , , 84 , , 266 , , 112 , , 32 , , 1.7 , , 0.6 , , 7.9 , , 3.7 , , 11.6 , , 4.9 , , 1.4 , - ! 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;", , 19 , , 16 , , 36 , , 21 , , 126 , , 66 , , 192 , , 90 , , 19 , , 2.3 , , 1.3 , , 7.9 , , 4.1 , , 12.0 , , 5.6 , , 1.2 , - style="background:#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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 17 , , 24 , , 16 , , 131 , , 63 , , 194 , , 95 , , 30 , , 1.4 , , 0.9 , , 7.7 , , 3.7 , , 11.4 , , 5.6 , , 1.8 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 303 ! 521 ! 286 ! 2880 ! 1318 ! 4198 ! 1518 ! 425 ! 1.7 ! 0.9 ! 9.5 ! 4.3 ! 13.8 ! 5.0 ! 1.4

Post-AFL career

O'Loughlin was awarded the 2009 AFL Players' Association Madden for his on and off-field contributions to the game. In 2010 O'Loughlin coached the

Flying Boomerangs The Flying Boomerangs are the underage Indigenous Australian Australian rules football team for men (the underage women's team is known as the ''Woomeras''). The team has played tests against junior teams from Papua New Guinea, South Africa, New ...

Indigenous side during their Cape Town tour, leading the side to victory against the

South Africa National Australian Rules Football Team The South African national Australian rules football team (nicknamed the Lions) represent South Africa in the sport of Australian rules football. The senior side represents the best South African born and developed players as selected from ...

. He was later named coach of the World 18 for the AFL National Under 16 Championships. In 2011 he was named as coach of the Indigenous All Star team for their biennial game, this time against the

. O'Loughlin also represented South Australia against Victoria in the State of Origin Slowdown charity match at the Adelaide Oval on 3 October 2011. Both teams were composed of retired players with the match supporting both the

Little Heroes Foundation The Little Heroes Foundation, previously the McGuinness McDermott Foundation, was launched in May 1996 in memory of five-year-old Nicholas Berry, and seven-year-old Nathan Maclean who died of cancer. The Foundation raises funds to improve oncolog ...

and the Reach Foundation youth charities started by former

Melbourne Demons 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, ...

star player, the late Jim Stynes.

The GO Foundation

In September 2009 he launched the Goodes O'Loughlin Foundation, or GO Foundation, along with his cousin and co-chairman Adam Goodes and their friend James Gallichan, in Dareton, NSW, where it was involved in various community programmes for the local Aboriginal population. In 2014, it started focusing on education for Indigenous Australians, and established a board of directors. Founding partners include the Sydney Swans,

Allens Linklaters Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...

, QBE Insurance and KPMG Australia. After starting with a few scholarships to

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

s, by 2021 GO had expanded into 26 mostly public schools, as well as five universities.

Off-field controversy

In 2000, it was alleged that O'Loughlin had been present during the rape of a woman in a park in Adelaide by two other AFL players,

Adam Heuskes Adam Heuskes (born 20 March 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League most remembered for his on field flamboyance and controversial off-field behaviour, which twice resulted in rape allegations. His decora ...

and

Peter Burgoyne Peter Gabriel Burgoyne (born 29 January 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer with Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played primarily in midfield and on the half back flank. Early life Burgoyne is of Indigen ...

. O'Loughlin was said to have been "present before or during the incident, but not directly involved in it. O'Loughlin was neither charged nor questioned by police but Burgoyne and Heuskes were both charged with rape. The case, however, did not go to court as the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Rofe, said there was "no reasonable prospect of conviction on any criminal charge" due to a lack of witnesses. Despite this, the three players made a $200,000 cash payment to the alleged victim.O'Loughlin linked to payment – National
''The Age''. (19 March 2004). Retrieved 3 June 2012. The incident came to public light when it was examined on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

investigative program ''

Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...

'' in 2004.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oloughlin, Michael 1977 births Living people All-Australians (AFL) Sydney Swans players Sydney Swans Premiership players Bob Skilton Medal winners South Australian State of Origin players Central District Football Club players Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Australian rules footballers from Adelaide Australia international rules football team coaches Australian people of English descent Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of Czech-Jewish descent Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australia international rules football team players South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players