Martin Clarke
Playing for An Ríocht in Páirc Esler, Newry on 26th October 2007
Personal information
Full name	Martin Clarke
Date of birth	13 November 1987 (1987-11-13) (age 22)
Place of birth	Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland
Recruited from	An Ríocht GAA Club, Kilkeel, County Down
Draft	40th overall, 2006 Rookie Draft Collingwood
Height/Weight	181cm, 84kg
Position(s)	Half Back
Club information
Current club	Collingwood
Number	18
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2007-2009	Collingwood	46 (16)
1 Playing statistics to end of 2009 season .

Martin 'Marty' Clarke (Irish: Máirtín Ó Cléirigh) (born 13 November 1987) is a Gaelic footballer from Cranfield Point, County Down, Northern Ireland. He is a former Australian rules footballer for Collingwood in the Australian Football League.

[edit] Underage

Clarke was an outstanding underage Gaelic football talent. He starred for Down GAA Minors [1], helping them to the 2005 All-Ireland Minor Football 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 at local club level with An Ríocht.[2] as a centre half forward.

[edit] AFL career

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.

In October 2007, when Clarke returned home from Australia for a three week holiday and during that time helped his local club An Ríocht lift its first ever Down Division One league title, defeating Kilcoo in the final. Clarke scored 2-1 in the final, which was played under lights in Pairc Esler, Newry on 26 October 2007. In 2008 Clarke also lined out for An Ríocht. Clarke has been dubbed by Collingwood assistant coach Guy McKenna as "the Irish equivalent of Nathan Buckley."

Clarke was developed through Collingwood's VFL affiliate the Williamstown Football Club, where he played a number of games semi-professionally as a rookie before debuting at AFL level. It was there that he made a name for himself as a quick midfielder with an ability to accumulate a high number of possessions. He was not only able to adapt extremely well to the oval ball, but brought across some gaelic football skills which made publicity, particularly his ability to toe poke the oval ball off the ground into his hands.^[1] On one such occasion, he was able to do so at full speed in wet conditions while being closely pursued by an opponent which was featured on Before the Game.

On Friday 16 February 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, 23 June 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 1 July 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.

After his sensational debut year, Clarke started 2008 in a run of poor form which saw him dropped from the Collingwood side to play the Brisbane Lions. He would not return to the side for several weeks later and combined with a run of injuries did not recapture his 2007 form. Clarke was ruled out of representing Ireland in the 2008 International Rules Series due to an ankle injury.

[edit] Return to Ireland

Clarke announced his retirement from AFL on the 24th September 2009, citing his desire to return home and to play Gaelic football. He said that ultimately it was the desire to play Gaelic football that prompted him to decline the offer of another three-year contract in Australia and that "I could easily have stayed. But I think this is what I want to do more. I am more passionate about playing for Down than playing for Collingwood."^[2]

[edit] See also

• Players who have converted from one football code to another
• Irish experiment

[edit] External links

• An Ríocht - 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

[edit] References