Luke Parker’s AFL career has been smooth sailing from pretty much day one. Since making his debut for Sydney in mid-2011, he has barely missed a game, except for a couple of minor injuries here and there and a single, one-match suspension he served last year.
That was all before this year.
A bit like buses, so many bigger challenges have come at once for Parker in 2024: the broken arm he suffered in pre-season, the most significant physical ailment he has ever had to deal with as a footballer, and then his weeks-long battle to break into Sydney’s best 23 once he’d recovered.
Luke Parker has had a tough 2024, but has come out the other side of it with a fourth grand final appearance.Credit: Getty Images
You might say it got the better of him, if his high hit on Frankston player Josh Smith in the VFL back in May – on the same night the Swans smashed Carlton in front of a packed SCG – was an expression of his inner frustrations.
Parker was sidelined for six weeks, and his long exile from the Swans’ AFL ranks prompted a previously unfathomable thought: that it might be in his best interests to wear a different guernsey next year.
As his younger teammates were flying high on top of the ladder, he couldn’t get a look-in, and speculation was rife that a team like North Melbourne, who could do with his veteran expertise, would come in for him at the end of the year.
They still might, and Parker has done little to douse such chatter in the few times he’s been asked about it.
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