Luke Ottens

Luke Ottens (born 22 May 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is the elder brother of All-Australian and premiership player, Brad Ottens, and the son of Dean Ottens.

Early life He is the son of Dean Ottens, who was a talented ruckman for Sturt in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Dean played 116 games, won two premierships and representing South Australia seven times. Born on 22 May 1976, Luke grew up in a footballing family. His brother, Brad, had a successful AFL career, winning three premierships with Geelong. Brad claims his earliest memory is "playing in the backyard with [Luke]".

Ottens began his career with Glenelg, playing in the SANFL.

AFL career Ottens was drafted to the Melbourne Football Club with the 50th selection in the 1997 AFL draft, the same draft in which his brother, Brad, was drafted by Richmond with the second selection. Ottens made his debut for Melbourne's reserves in April 1998. Although a key-position defender, Ottens also played as Melbourne's backup ruckman, occasionally rucking directly against his brother during the match. He was, however, "dominated" by his younger, but substantially taller, brother in these encounters. Ottens was dropped from the team for Melbourne's round 5 match and he never made his way back into the Melbourne senior team in a career that was crippled by injury, causing the round 4 game to be his last AFL match. In round 13 of the 1999 season, Ottens injured his left knee, requiring a knee reconstruction, which ruled him out for the remainder of the 1999 season and half of the 2000 season.

After being delisted, Ottens went back to his original team, Glenelg, and played for the Tigers from 2001 to 2002.

Luke finished his career playing for the Encounter Bay Football Club in 2003–04.