Paddy McCartin

Patrick McCartin (born 19 April 1996) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL), having previously played for the St Kilda Football Club from 2015 to 2019. He was drafted as the number one pick in the 2014 AFL draft.

St Kilda (2015-2019)
McCartin finished his education at Geelong Grammar on a football scholarship after attending St Joseph's College, Geelong from years 7 to 10. He played junior football for the Geelong Falcons in the TAC Cup and Victoria Country at the AFL Under 18 Championships.

He made his AFL debut in round 3 of the 2015 AFL season in St Kilda's loss against. He was selected as a late replacement for St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt who pulled out due to a calf injury. McCartin finished the 2015 season with six senior games and three goals to his name. Prior to the 2016 season, he signed a two-year contract extension which would keep him at the club until at least the end of the 2018 season.

McCartin's 2016 season was interrupted by injury, including three separate concussions. The first concussion was suffered in St Kilda's Round 3 win against Collingwood at the MCG, which kept him out of the senior team until his return in Round 9 against Essendon. Subsequent concussions were suffered in Round 11 against Adelaide and Round 15 against Gold Coast and finally a collision with Nick Vlastuin of Richmond in Round 22 led to McCartin sustaining a broken collarbone. Due to these injuries, McCartin was restricted to 11 games in 2016, adding 14 goals to his career total.

Playing for St Kilda's VFL affiliate club Sandringham in June 2017, McCartin suffered a further concussion. This was McCartin's 6th concussion in 4 years. He finished 2017 with only 5 senior AFL games.

McCartin's eighth concussion since 2014 came in a JLT Community Series match against the Western Bulldogs in March 2019. McCartin ultimately did not play a senior game for St Kilda in 2019. He was delisted by St Kilda at the conclusion of the 2019 AFL season to allow him to deal with complications resulting from repeated concussions. St Kilda head of football Simon Lethlean stated that the club would be open to re-adding McCartin to their list after a break in 2020.

Sydney (2021-2023)
In 2021, McCartin joined the Sydney Swans VFL team. In January 2022, he was signed as a rookie by the Swans as part of the pre-season supplemental selection period. In Round 17, McCartin played his 50th Australian Football League game for in their 53 point win against  at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He starred in this game having 22 disposals and 9 intercepts. McCartin was part of the Swans side that went down in the 2022 Grand Final by 81 pts Vs Geelong. He had 7 disposals whilst kicking one of Sydney's 8 goals.

In Round 4 of the 2023 AFL season McCartin, whilst fighting for a ground ball, grazed his head on the grass causing him to be concussed. This raised the conversation between the media and football critics such as Leigh Montagna on whether playing footy is worth causing longterm concussion problems for McCartin. On the 31st of May, 2023 it was announced that McCartin would not play anymore games for Sydney for the rest of the season. This was due to concussion symptoms not going away and McCartin needing the extra time to recover.

On August 14 2023 McCartin announced his retirement from AFL football due to concussion issues.

Statistics
Updated to the end of 2023.

! colspan=3 | Career ! 63 !! 35 !! 36 !! 489 !! 161 !! 650 !! 280 !! 52 !! 0.5 !! 0.5 !! 7.7 !! 2.5 !! 10.3 !! 4.4 !! 0.8
 * 2015 || || 32
 * 6 || 3 || 5 || 43 || 13 || 56 || 26 || 8 || 0.5 || 0.8 || 7.2 || 2.2 || 9.3 || 4.3 || 1.3
 * 2016 || || 32
 * 11 || 14 || 6 || 56 || 21 || 77 || 48 || 4 || 1.3 || 0.5 || 5.1 || 1.9 || 7.0 || 4.4 || 0.4
 * 2017 || || 32
 * 5 || 5 || 8 || 40 || 18 || 58 || 23 || 5 || 1.0 || 1.6 || 8.0 || 3.6 || 11.6 || 4.6 || 1.0
 * 2018 || || 32
 * 13 || 12 || 17 || 91 || 35 || 126 || 62 || 12 || 0.9 || 1.3 || 7.0 || 2.7 || 9.7 || 4.8 || 0.9
 * 2019 || || 32
 * 0 || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || – || –
 * 2022 || || 39
 * 24 || 1 || 0 || 229 || 65 || 294 || 121 || 23 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 9.5 || 2.7 || 12.3 || 5.0 || 1.0
 * 2023 || || 39
 * 4 || 0 || 0 || 30 || 9 || 39 || 15 || 3 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 7.5 || 2.2 || 9.7 || 3.7 || 0.7
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 2022 || || 39
 * 24 || 1 || 0 || 229 || 65 || 294 || 121 || 23 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 9.5 || 2.7 || 12.3 || 5.0 || 1.0
 * 2023 || || 39
 * 4 || 0 || 0 || 30 || 9 || 39 || 15 || 3 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 7.5 || 2.2 || 9.7 || 3.7 || 0.7
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 4 || 0 || 0 || 30 || 9 || 39 || 15 || 3 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 7.5 || 2.2 || 9.7 || 3.7 || 0.7
 * - class=sortbottom
 * }

Personal life
His younger brother, Tom, was drafted by the Sydney Swans at pick number 33 in the 2017 AFL draft. The two brothers first played against each other in Round 12 2018 at Docklands Stadium.

At age nine, McCartin was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.