Brisbane Bears/Lions Career
Clarke was drafted by the Richmond Football Club from Mount Gambier in 1991 but did not play a senior game, spending the year playing for the Richmond Under 19s'. He was delisted at the end of 1992, but was picked up by the Brisbane Bears at pick 43 in the 1993 pre-season draft.
Debuting in 1993 with the Bears, "Doc" Clarke was a promising young Ruckman under coach Robert Walls and was particularly decisive with his tap work.
After being runner up in the Brisbane Bears Club Champion award in 1994 and 1996, he took out the Merrett-Murray best and fairest award in 1997 for the Brisbane Lions and consolidated his position as one of the league's best ruckmen.
Read more about this topic: Matthew Clarke (Australian Rules Footballer)
Famous quotes containing the words bears, lions and/or career:
“What a wonderful thing it is that drop of seed, from which we are produced, bears in itself the impressions, not only of the bodily shape, but of the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers!”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
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—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, III, ch.4 (1985)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)