AFL media personality Luke Darcy has blamed the coronavirus lockdowns for killing his sporting legend father.
In an emotional clash with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Darcy said his elderly father David Darcy, who played 133 games for the Western Bulldogs, lost his will to live during Melbourne‘s Stage Four restrictions.
‘I lost my 78-year-old father, Premier, during this time and you know what happened to him?,’ Luke Darcy told his Melbourne Triple M listeners.
‘He was a very similar person to you actually, Premier.
‘He loved his golf. He was isolated in his home. He wasn’t dying from this.
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AFL media personality Luke Darcy (pictured with wife Rebecca) has blamed the coronavirus lockdowns for killing his father – another sporting legend
‘He was dying from the isolation and the loneliness because he couldn’t get to the gym, he couldn’t run his business that he built for his family his entire life.’
Despite the harrowing account Mr Andrews spoke over Luke Darcy, a former Western Bulldogs captain, who nonetheless continued telling his story.
‘What was happening was the policies were causing harm, Premier,’ Darcy said.
Instead of offering his condolences, Mr Andrews replied: ‘Let me finish the point I’m making.
‘There is a view, “Oh, well, we should lockdown aged care and only lock down aged care”,’ he said.
‘And that everyone else can open up. This is not just relevant to older people.’
David Darcy died on August 1. He was a prominent footballer himself. He played with the Western Bulldogs from 1963-66, and again from 1968-71.
He played 133 games for the Bulldogs and four times for Victoria.
The late Darcy senior also played with South Adelaide in 1967, and coached there in 1972 and 1973.
In an emotional clash with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Darcy said his elderly father David Darcy (pictured during the 1960s), who played 133 games for the Western Bulldogs, lost his will to live during Melbourne’s Stage Four restrictions
His 44-year-old son Luke Darcy played 226 games for the Western Bulldogs, being awarded Players’ Association Player of the Year in 2002 when he was also named in the All Australian team.
After retirement in 2007, he became a media personality and a board member of the Melbourne AFL club he played for.
Luke Darcy’s Triple M Hot Breakfast co-host Eddie McGuire lost his mother Bridie during the same week in early August.
Eddie McGuire’s older brother Frank McGuire is a Labor MP in the Victorian Parliament, who holds the northern Melbourne seat of Broadmeadows – former ALP premier John Brumby’s old electorate.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews continued talking over Luke Darcy as he talked about the death of his father and failed to offer him any condolences after he had told his story
Darcy took Mr Andrews to task after he extended Melbourne’s Stage Four lockdowns by another two weeks September 28.
Luke Darcy played 226 games for the Western Bulldogs, being awarded Players’ Association Player of the Year in 2002 when he was also named in the All Australian team. After retirement in 2007, he became a media personality and a board member of the Melbourne AFL club he played for
The Premier, from Labor’s Socialist Left faction, announced a road map on Sunday that would only allow a significant easing in coming weeks if the state recorded fewer than five new daily cases during the final fortnight of this month.
Luke Darcy argued the stricter lockdowns would fail to completely eradicate COVID-19 and argued a suppression strategy with better contact tracing was better.
‘There’s an incredible study that’s been done in The Lancet suggesting that extreme lockdowns have the opposite effect and do not work and they cause immeasurable harm and actually when you open up again, you will get more cases,’ he said.
A Lancet article published last month argued stricter lockdowns were unlikely to completely eliminate COVID-19.
‘I agree that a hard lockdown strategy will only slow down and delay, but not entirely eliminate, cases of the infection. Indeed, countries might not be able to afford to enact lockdown with no end in sight,’ Raja Ramanchandran said.
Even supporters of the Stage Four lockdowns are critical, with the Grattan Institute think tank’s health program director Dr Stephen Duckett disagreeing with the 8pm to 5am curfew.
