Martin Clarke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Personal Info | |
|---|---|
| Birth | November 13, 1987, Ireland |
| Recruited from | Kilkeel,County Down (Ireland)
|
| Playing Career¹ | |
| Debut | , vs. , at |
| Team(s) | |
| ¹ Statistics to end of season | |
| Career Highlights | |
Martin 'Marty' Clarke (born November 13, 1987) is a Collingwood footballer in the Australian Football League.
[edit] Gaelic football Career
Martin was an outstanding Gaelic football talent. He starred for Down Minors, leading them to The 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. 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. He impressed scouts even more and on 22 August 2006 signed a contract with Collingwood FC.
[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.[1] This lead to Pies assistant coach Gavin Brown, to say[2]
"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.
