Brad Ottens

Australian rules footballer

Brad Ottens (born 25 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Ottens was born in South Australia, but raised on a cattle station near Katherine, Northern Territory. He moved to South Australia to board at Immanuel College, Adelaide where he began to play Australian rules. He later played senior football with the Glenelg Football Club where he became a standout. Some see it as a defining moment for Brad. Since then Ottens has been Geelong's preferred first ruckman. In 2006 Ottens showed signs of improvement, particularly in the ruck. He also took the Mark of the Year in round 5 against Sydney. He played all 22 games in 2006. The week after Geelong's exit from the 2006 AFL season, Ottens was involved in a drink driving incident which saw him have his licence cancelled for 11 months. In 2007 Ottens was in near career best form. He played a majority of the season as Geelong's main ruckman rather than as a forward where he had played mostly since joining the club. During the Cats' five point preliminary final win against Collingwood Ottens was voted best on ground after giving a game winning performance in the ruck. The following week he capped off a stellar season, among the best players in his side's record breaking grand final victory over Port Adelaide. He noted that it was the highlight of his career. Despite missing most of 2009 with injuries, Ottens made a late comeback and played in another Geelong premiership side. An injury interrupted season in 2010 resulted in a muted effort for the club's disappointing 2010 AFL finals series. In the 2011 AFL season a relatively injury free Ottens had led to him being able to improve his output on recent years. He retired at the end of the 2011 season.