Speculation of Luke Darcy being recruited by Victoria’s Liberal Party now a no-go zone
Behind the scenes negotiations may have played a key role in Luke Darcy’s decision to cut his political chat.
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What started as a joke which quickly gained momentum is now a no-go zone for Luke Darcy.
The Western Bulldogs great was heading to a career in politics with Victoria’s Liberal party, according to his former teammate Nathan Brown.
This gag started on Triple M off the back of the fact Darcy had a Josh Frydenberg sign in his front yard leading up to the federal election.
“The Liberal party see you as a strong, smart, educated person who can influence people,” Brown said. “I think that is a good thing.”
Darcy was forced to deny he had ties to the Liberals, saying he hadn’t been approached to be its next star.
“I feel aligned to good leadership. I’m massive on the fact we need good leadership on a national and state level,” he said.
He did confirm he was friends with Frydenberg who has since been mooted as the next AFL CEO.
Page 13 understands that all this Liberal talk and Frydenberg love had his old club a bit nervous.
Darcy is the football director on the Western Bulldogs board with the club the beneficiary of significant government funding from the Dan Andrews’ Labor government.
In 2020 the state government committed $36.6 million to the next stage of the Whitten Oval redevelopment which included upgrading its women’s football facilities.
That’s a lot of cash and we hear the Dogs hierarchy might have told Darcy to pull the plug on all the politics talk with this message passed onto his radio colleagues.
Darcy earned praise for his hard line interview questions to Premier Dan on Triple M’s The Hot Breakfast with Eddie McGuire in September 2020.
It came as the Victorian government had extended its crippling stage four lockdown restrictions after several outbreaks caused by issues with the state’s hotel quarantine system.
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