Lochie O'Brien


Lochie O'Brien is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Early life and junior career

Lochie grew up in rural Victoria and played junior football for the South Mildura Football Club. Growing up a Collingwood fan, his grandfather Denis played one senior game for Collingwood in 1971. Lochie had a promising athletics career growing up, breaking regional records in the 400 and 1500m categories and eventually breaking the state's school record with a time of 51.06 seconds. His impressive sporting background gave him the opportunity to attend Geelong Grammar School. It was not long before he was picked up by the Bendigo Pioneers of the TAC Cup.

AFL career

O'Brien was drafted by Carlton with its second selection in the 2017 national draft. He made his debut in Round 4, 2018 against at Blundstone Arena, and the following week was given a contract extension to the end of 2021.
O'Brien played regular senior football in his first two seasons, appearing in 35 of 44 matches, before falling out of favour and playing only six across in 2020 and 2021. He was demoted from the club's senior list to its rookie list for the 2022 season. At the end of 2023 AFL season he was delisted from the Carlton Football Club.
O'Brien was a member of Wangaratta Rovers' 2024 and 2025 Ovens & Murray Football League premiership teams and won the league's best and fairest award, the Morris Medal in 2025.

Statistics

! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2018
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2019
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2020
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2021
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2022
! colspan=3| Career
! 60
! 16
! 17
! 619
! 267
! 886
! 279
! 83
! 0.3
! 0.3
! 10.3
! 4.4
! 14.8
! 4.6
! 1.4