Son of a gun: Why Darcy Moore was born to play in the AFL
The scion of a two-time Brownlow medallist, Moore was always going to have a crack at footy. But pedigree alone doesn't account for his becoming a champion of the AFL
COLLINGWOOD CAPTAIN Darcy Moore has checked in at Atlantis, The Palm, a luxury hotel in Dubai, ready for a week of off-season pampering and self-reflection ahead of the 2026 AFL season. The tall (203cm), blond key defender, who made his debut for the Magpies 10 years ago and has captained them for the last three seasons, brings plenty of swagger, sensitivity and poise to the leadership role once held by his father.
It’s Moore’s first visit to the Middle East and his November timing is good, with the daytime temperature hovering between the mid-20s and low 30s. He’s travelling with some of his team’s biggest names, flying Emirates business class with the Daicos brothers, Nick and Josh, and Isaac Quaynor. He’s filling his days visiting temples of worship and absorbing Emirati culture, with regular gym sessions and a night-time desert safari rounding out his schedule. There are also wellness and spa treatments available to the lads on a restorative trip before normal programming resumes once back in Melbourne.
Moore, who turned 30 back in January, followed in the footsteps of his father, Peter Moore, who played for Collingwood from 1974-82. Perhaps the son’s path was preordained. His love for the game certainly took root early.
“I wanted to play football ever since I was a kid. It was just my absolute passion, and I grew up loving Collingwood and watching them all through my whole childhood,” says Moore. “It feels pretty crazy to say that my dream came true. Not many people get to say that.”
Peter Moore, who won two Brownlow Medals (the second in 1984, when he was playing for Melbourne), never pressured his son to follow his footballing path. But once Darcy started playing, the young star knew all eyes were fixed on him.
“Everyone knew me as Peter Moore’s son. I couldn’t really escape that fact, so I knew early on that the pressure was there. Even if I was [partly] imagining it, it became a bit of a mental thing,” he smiles. “As a young guy playing football, I was very aware that others were watching me and expected certain things from me because I was his son. I certainly felt that pressure,” he says.
Moore is grateful for a solid father-son relationship. In hindsight, he says, a lot of the pressure he felt in those early days was self-imposed.
“Dad always encouraged me to play because I loved football and enjoyed it,” he says. “I still play to the best of my ability, but as a teenager, there was never any sort of agenda from Dad, which helps now that I am older and have more perspective.”
As captain, Moore models a resilience that inspires his teammates, whose various needs he’s learned to meet and manage. He credits his resilience to periods he endured in his youth, when he was constantly battling tonsilitis and was diagnosed with glandular fever at 16.
“I had a bit of a rough year and dealt with some illness that really knocked me out back then,” he says. “I missed a lot of school and was quite behind in my schoolwork and didn’t play much football.
“I also had lots of sporting injuries. It was a year when I was having more than a bad moment and had to really weigh up if footy was what I wanted to do. It’s at that age as well when all the pathways start and [attending] the academies becomes important. [Despite everything] I got selected and it was a light- bulb moment. [A career in footy] was within reach and I decided it was what I wanted to do and it was worth pursuing.”
Playing at the highest level is one thing, adding captaincy duties is another. “I’ve always had leadership roles in life,” says Moore, who was school captain at Carey Baptist Grammar. “I want to be honest, though, when I made it into the league. I wasn’t sure if the captaincy was really for me. It wasn’t something that I really aspired to do, or that I really had ambitions on doing one day.”
Nonetheless, the role landed in his lap – at which point the only issue became how to do it well. “When I was chosen in 2023, I definitely approached the role with a strong vision about how I wanted to lead the team,” he says. “The biggest thing I have learned is that you never stop learning. When you’re managing so many different people at different stages of life, you have so many things to think about – from the differing levels of maturity, different skill levels and trying to make everyone happy, feel valued and psychologically feel safe as well as perform well. That takes a lot of hard mental work and takes a lot out of you.”
That’s why the off-season is such a precious window of time in which to rest and realign. For the time being, Moore has swapped the adrenaline he struggles to switch off after playing a game of footy for cold plunges and soothing wellness routines.
Away from football, Moore is an avid reader who loves to cook and does a lot of Tai Chi with his long-time girlfriend Dee Salmin, a host on Triple J. He’s also doing a Masters of International Relations at the University of Melbourne, where he earlier attained a commerce degree. He studied Indonesian throughout high school and into university and put the language to use when he on a recent trip to Indonesia.
He’s also befriended Attica’s acclaimed chef, Ben Shewry, reaching out to the New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based chef after reading his 2024 memoir, Uses for Obsession. “The book resonated with me,” says Moore. “I love reading and seeing how others process their lives and careers.”
Their friendship turned into a dinner date, with Moore cooking a chicken roast and broccoli for the culinary star before heading off to Dubai. “Ben said I cooked the broccoli to perfection,” he beams.
Collingwood’s 2023 premiership win remains a career highlight, but the pressure to redeliver on that achievement is something Moore feels keenly.
“Being the premiership captain was a huge honour,” he says. “It probably sounds cliché, but it was out of this world to experience it and it’s something I always think about.”
For now, the off-season is about indulging his love of cold-plunge therapy and yoga, which he started practising 10 years ago. What’s more, fitness doesn’t feel so task-driven in the off-season, when he enjoys a hit of tennis, too.
“I like to get inspired by those I admire,” he says. “I look up to athletes like Lewis Hamilton. I love his sense of style and how he expresses himself, and the amount of time he gives to philanthropy. I became a big fan in 2021 when he had a crazy experience and lost the World Championships [in controversial circumstances on the last lap of the last race]. Seeing the kind of humility and grace he showed set the tone for me. It gave me the sense that, whatever comes, it’s how you deal with it that matters. It’s a mindset I hold onto.”
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