Martin Clarke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth | November 13, 1987 , Newry, County Down |
| Recruited from | An Riocht GAA Club, |
| Height and weight | 182cm / 78kg |
| Playing career¹ | |
| Debut | Round 12, June 23, 2007, Collingwood vs. Sydney Swans, at Telstra Stadium |
| Team(s) | Collingwood (2007-)
12 Games, 3 Goals |
| ¹ Statistics to end of season | |
| Career highlights | |
|
|
Martin 'Marty' Clarke (born November 13, 1987) is a footballer from Cranfield Point County Down, Northern Ireland who plays for Collingwood in the Australian Football League.
Contents |
[edit] Gaelic football Career
Martin was an outstanding Gaelic football talent. He starred for Down GAA Minors [1], leading them to the 2005 All Ireland Championship and also played a large part in bringing his school, St Louis, Kilkeel, to 2 MacRory Cup finals in 2005 and 2006, and also to a MacLarnon Cup and an All Ireland Colleges 'B' title in as many years.
He played senior football with his club, An Riocht.[2] He was a centre half forward. He was first alerted to AFL scouts in the 2005 McRory Cup final, at which the Australian U17 International Rules team was present.
He was invited to an AFL training camp in July 2006. He impressed scouts even more and on 22 August 2006 signed a contract with Collingwood Football Club, becoming the first ever truly international rookie for the club.
Although now dedicated to his professional AFL carrer, he has not cut all links with his amateur gaelic football past. This was demonstrated in October 2007, when Clarke returned home from Australia for a three week holiday and during that time helped his local club An Riocht lift its first ever Division One league title, defeating Kilcoo in the final. Martin scored 2-1 in the final, which was played under lights in Pairc Esler, Newry on 26th October 2007.
[edit] AFL career
Clarke has been dubbed by Collingwood assistant coach Guy McKenna as "the Irish equivalent of Nathan Buckley" - high praise indeed. Clarke is a quick midfielder who has adapted extremely well to the oval ball, and will become one to watch in the coming seasons. On Friday February 16, 2007 he made his AFL debut in a preseason game with Sydney Swans at the North Sydney Oval. He had an outstanding game.[3] This led Pies assistant coach Gavin Brown to say[4]
"He was probably the stand-out player from the point of view that he had never played a game of Aussie Rules before. "It just showed that he has an enormous amount of will and want, and he had put in a lot of hard work. It was fantastic for him today - a good step.
Clarke made his debut in a premiership season game on Saturday, June 23, 2007, also against the Swans. Again, his game was outstanding, with 20 possessions in front of a crowd of 64,222 at Telstra Stadium in Sydney.[5] Some sources have even called his performance "one of the best debuts in the history of the game". [6]
His second game came in Round 13 against Hawthorn on July 1, 2007. In another promising display, Clarke picked up nineteen possessions and three goals, playing on former brownlow medallist Shane Crawford in a sell out crowd in front of 50,248 at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne. For his 3 goal near best on ground performance earned him a nomination in the NAB AFL Rising Star award in just his second game and a year to the date that he first arrived in Melbourne.
[edit] Media work
Clarke currently writes a weekly diary for the Irish Daily Star's Northern pullout Sport On Tuesday. Since beginning the column in December 2007 Clarke has described the ups and downs of life in the AFL, with the Down man's sharp wit a notable element of the weekly diary.
[edit] External links
- An Riocht - GAA Club Co Down
- Down GAA Online - Ireland
- Martin Clarke profile on the Official AFL Website of the Collingwood Football Club
- A Collingwood TV interview with Clarke on youtube
- BBC documentary from 2007 (30 minutes long) on Clarke's first year in Australia
|
|||||
Numbers - 2007 - #43 2008 - #18
