Ben Long (born 21 August 1997) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Long was born in Darwin, Northern Territory into a family of Indigenous Australian descent (Anmatjerre, Malak-Malak & Tiwi). His grandfather, Jack Long Sr, and his father, Chris Long, were both premiership winning footballers for St Mary's in the Northern Territory Football League. As a member of the Rioli-Long family he shares numerous relations with other notable footballers including dual Essendon premiership player and 1993 Norm Smith Medallist Michael Long (uncle), four-time Hawthorn premiership player and 2015 Norm Smith Medallist Cyril Rioli (cousin), three-time Richmond premiership player Daniel Rioli (nephew), 2018 West Coast premiership player Junior Rioli (cousin) and dual Adelaide AFLW premiership player Danielle Ponter (cousin). He has Chinese and English heritage from his paternal grandfather Jack Long.
Ben grew up playing junior football for St Mary's in the NTFL junior leagues and in 2014, at the age of 16, he moved interstate to Victoria when he accepted a scholarship to attend Melbourne Grammar. In 2016, he played in Footscray's VFL premiership winning team. Along with football, Long played rugby union for the Casuarina Cougars as a youngster alongside future AFL player Brandan Parfitt before quitting to focus solely on football as a teenager.
Long was drafted by the St Kilda Football Club with their first selection and twenty-fifth overall in the 2016 national draft. He made his debut in the fourteen point win against at Etihad Stadium in round four of the 2017 season. Long was nominated for the AFL Rising Star for his performance in the draw against at Etihad Stadium in round five of the 2018 AFL season, during which he recorded fifteen disposals, eight tackles, four marks and a goal. In the final game of St Kilda's 2022 season, Long compiled a career-best performance against the Sydney Swans which included 27 disposals, 17 marks, 13 intercepts and one goal with a disposal efficiency of 96 per cent on his 25th birthday.
Following his 2022 season, Long requested a trade to after playing six seasons at St Kilda. He was traded on 5 October 2022.
Long spent his first season in defence for the Suns. After struggling to cement his position in the team, new coach Damian Hardwick made a move to push Long forward and he became a prolific goalkicker. In round 12, 2024, Long kicked a career-best four goals against . He equalled this feat in the opening game of the following year against . The second of these performances began a string of career-best form in 2025 for Long, joining Champion Data's list of the ten best players in the competition early in the year.
Updated to the end of round 3, 2026.
|- | 2017 || || 21 | 4 || 0 || 2 || 15 || 21 || 36 || 6 || 13 || 0.0 || 0.5 || 3.8 || 5.3 || 9.0 || 1.5 || 3.3 || 0 |- | 2018 || || 21 | 10 || 7 || 4 || 58 || 62 || 120 || 28 || 27 || 0.7 || 0.4 || 5.8 || 6.2 || 12.0 || 2.8 || 2.7 || 0 |- | 2019 || || 21 | 16 || 14 || 9 || 101 || 51 || 152 || 59 || 45 || 0.9 || 0.6 || 6.3 || 3.2 || 9.5 || 3.7 || 2.8 || 0 |- | 2020 || || 21 | 15 || 0 || 1 || 90 || 94 || 184 || 49 || 30 || 0.0 || 0.1 || 6.0 || 6.3 || 12.3 || 3.3 || 2.0 || 2 |- | 2021 || || 21 | 15 || 2 || 9 || 94 || 49 || 143 || 52 || 35 || 0.1 || 0.6 || 6.3 || 3.3 || 9.5 || 3.5 || 2.3 || 0 |- | 2022 || || 21 | 19 || 8 || 6 || 128 || 97 || 225 || 74 || 58 || 0.4 || 0.3 || 6.7 || 5.1 || 11.8 || 3.9 || 3.1 || 2 |- | 2023 || || 22 | 15 || 0 || 1 || 114 || 57 || 171 || 42 || 34 || 0.0 || 0.1 || 7.6 || 3.8 || 11.4 || 2.8 || 2.3 || 0 |- | 2024 || || 22 | 17 || 26 || 17 || 122 || 51 || 173 || 62 || 46 || 1.5 || 1.0 || 7.2 || 3.0 || 10.2 || 3.6 || 2.7 || 0 |- | 2025 || || 22 | 24 || 45 || 26 || 192 || 67 || 259 || 109 || 46 || 1.9 || 1.1 || 8.0 || 2.8 || 10.8 || 4.5 || 1.9 || 1 |- | 2026 || || 22 | 3 || 4 || 0 || 15 || 20 || 35 || 5 || 10 || 1.3 || 0.0 || 5.0 || 6.7 || 11.7 || 1.7 || 3.3 || |- class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 | Career ! 138 !! 106 !! 75 !! 929 !! 569 !! 1498 !! 486 !! 344 !! 0.8 !! 0.5 !! 6.7 !! 4.1 !! 10.9 !! 3.5 !! 2.5 !! 5
Notes