Carlton Reserve Career: 1995.
Reserve Games: 22
Reserve Goals: 4
Height: 176cm (5'9")
Weight: 70kg (11.1)
Guernsey No. 46 (1995).
DOB: 3rd May, 1976.
Ben Jordan played reserve grade football for Carlton in 1995. Jordan also had a run with Richmond in 1994, and also Collingwood in 1994 and 1996.
In 1997 Ben Jordan headed to the WAFL and played for East Fremantle, he played 4 games and kicked 1 goal for the Sharks.
Jordan was recruited from Rupertswood via TAC Cup team the Western Jets.
Jordan later played with St Bernards and represented the VAFA in 2003.
He didn't play a senior game for Carlton.
Ben Jordan returns to his junior club as coach of Rupertswood- ROSLYN LANIGAN (March 28, 2014).
New Rupertswood Football Club coach Ben Jordan admits he’s been on “a bit of a journey” since leaving his junior club 20 years ago. But he’s glad to be home. Jordan, an accomplished footballer and last year’s Ballarat Football League interleague coach, put pen to paper at Rupertswood in October, returning to the club he last played for as a 17-year-old. “It’s definitely good to be back, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do this year,” he said. “Hopefully I can bring an exciting game style and a standard of footy that will be successful.” Last year was Rupertswood’s first in the Riddell District Football League senior competition. While the club — originally known as Silesian due to its location inside the grounds of Sunbury’s Salesian College — had fielded junior teams in the Riddell league since 1984, its under-18 and open-age teams last year made the switch from the Victorian Amateur Football Association to the more local RDFL. It’s a move that has paid off in spades, according to Rupo president Paul Ross. Player retention has improved, sponsorship is up and the once all-male VAFA club now boasts four netball teams. “Our goal last year was to just be competitive,” Ross said. “We made finals in all the netball grades and all the senior football grades, so we ticked all the boxes there.” One of the key reasons for Rupertswood’s switch from the VAFA to the Riddell league was to halt a crippling player drain that saw the club lose 104 players in three years. “You’d have to say that money was a fairly overriding part of it, but it was also guys who felt like they had the talent (but) they didn’t feel that they were getting recognised in the VAFA because we were playing so far away from home,” Ross said. “We weren’t getting a lot of press coverage because it wasn’t local content, and playing a game against Ormond or Werribee or De La Salle doesn’t really rate. “I think that notoriety has been one of the things that has bought players back — they know they’ll be recognised. “The sentiment was always ‘when I’m getting towards the end of my career, I fully intend to come back and play my last years where I started, at Rupertswood’. “So we’ve probably just sped up that process a little bit by going semi-professional.” Another factor drawing former players back to Rupo is undoubtedly Jordan’s return. A highly decorated and respected footballer, he earned All-Australian Amateur representation in 2004 while playing with St Bernard’s, then took out the Ballarat Football League best and fairest in 2005 playing for East Point. He has held playing assistant coaching roles at both East Point and Sunbury and since retiring from playing has honed his coaching skills with the Ballarat Football League interleague side, as assistant coach in 2012, and coach in 2013.Ross admitted Rupo had gone “all out” to secure Jordan’s services after he had indicated an initial interest. “He’s very professional, he does a lot of preparation and doesn’t leave anything to chance,” Ross said. “We’re really happy with the way he’s taken it on and the response from the players has been fantastic, so the results will follow.” Jordan said he had been toying with a return to club footy for a couple of years, and Rupertswood seemed “a good fit”. “With me coming on board, fortunately other people have seen it as a great time to come back to the club as well,” he said. “Some of them have achieved good things at other senior footy clubs and they’ll bring that back now to the table at Rupertswood.” Rupo’s signings include Niall and Darragh McGovern, who had been at Sunbury and Sunbury Kangaroos respectively, Gav Moule and Josh Hine (Aberfeldie), Shane Bishop and Campbell Allport (Sunbury Kangaroos) and Josh Smerdon (Birchip-Watchem). “These are guys who have played a lot of senior footy — they’re strong-bodied, they’re mature footballers,” Jordan said. Rupertswood has also signed Sunbury premiership player and elite defender Brett Chambers as its playing assistant coach, an acquisition Jordan said would “give us a lot of experience, he’s really professional in the way he goes about it all”. The jury remains out on whether Jordan’s brother, Dan, a six-time Ballarat Football League leading goalkicker, will pull on a Rupo jumper this season.
Dan has joined Essendon as a VFL forward development coach, closing the career of one of the Ballarat league’s best goalkickers. “I’d like to say yes, he’ll play, but we’re still unsure,” Jordan said. “We don’t really know what the week to week requirements (of the Essendon role) are going to be, but if availability does come up, we’d jump at the chance to try and slot him in.” Jordan said Rupertswood’s recruiting spree had netted about 14 players, “11 or so players who have returned to the club and a small number of new faces”. But he said Rupo would need to improve “a lot” to catch the pacesetters in the Riddell league. “We’re sort of middle of the road and I think what the guys managed in their first year in the RDFL was a pretty good achievement. “But that’s not where we see ourselves long term, so we certainly need to step it up. “I think I know a fair bit about the way the game can and should be played and how to build success, so that’s what I’ll be looking to do at Rupertswood.”