Mitch Clark : Ends His Glorious Career
When Clark couldn’t mark it he’d try and crumb it. When it wasn’t there he took on the responsibility of running up field and grabbing it himself. That’s how badly he wanted it. To some football fans Clark’s decision to call time on his career at 26 and in the prime of his earning years might seem drastic but as Melbourne’s Football Manager Josh Mahoney said, really it’s brave and sensible.
It’s as brave as the times he launched himself through packs and landed head-first on the turf or dedicated himself to another spell of injury rehab. Clark’s football journey was never easy. Mostly it was filled with the unglamorous stuff and the frustration that fans are never there to witness. Mostly it was interminable periods of time spent with doctors and physios and rehabbing in gyms. If you’d lived Clark’s life in the last 10 years you’d have done little else. It was always so. He was struck down by meningococcal disease a week before the 2005 AFL draft in which Brisbane took the Perth boy with the ninth pick. In 2006 it started like a dream and Clark booted a goal with his first kick in league football. Then he was struck down by osteitis pubis and persistent injuries to his quadriceps. The pattern was set early; breathtaking highs like the break-out five goals he kicked against Collingwood in 2007 that thrilled Lions fans were followed by further injury lows. By 2009 he was still lean, gangly and green when he played a lion-hearted year in the ruck for Brisbane. Undaunted by the size differential he often faced and perhaps mindful that he could use his mobility, he thrived.
Clark was an All-Australian contender by the end of that year and did a man’s job with a boy’s body. His travails in the years before meant he shaped as a flaky proposition to fill the giant hole left by season-ending injuries to Matthew Leuenberger and Jamie Charman. Clark was colossal, ploughing through every single game of the season including two finals. Out of position, above his station, he dragged the side with him. He shouldn’t have been able to do it but you saw it with your own eyes and it was true. Fuelled by the frustrations of three years on the sidelines he wouldn’t yield. Within two years he’d had enough of Brisbane and wanted to go home. He’d average just 10 games per season by then but the curve was trending upwards. Then came the shock change of heart to accept a lucrative offer from Melbourne just when Fremantle looked as keen to lure Clark back home to Western Australia as he was to get there.
Honesty and integrity have served Melbourne and Clark well in coming to this decision. Long may he be remembered as a courageous player cut down by injuries and a brave man, a father too, who realised the importance of the task ahead of him and embraced it as he would the contest: head on.
When Clark couldn’t mark it he’d try and crumb it. When it wasn’t there he took on the responsibility of running up field and grabbing it himself. That’s how badly he wanted it. To some football fans Clark’s decision to call time on his career at 26 and in the prime of his earning years might seem drastic but as Melbourne’s Football Manager Josh Mahoney said, really it’s brave and sensible.
Clark was an All-Australian contender by the end of that year and did a man’s job with a boy’s body. His travails in the years before meant he shaped as a flaky proposition to fill the giant hole left by season-ending injuries to Matthew Leuenberger and Jamie Charman. Clark was colossal, ploughing through every single game of the season including two finals. Out of position, above his station, he dragged the side with him. He shouldn’t have been able to do it but you saw it with your own eyes and it was true. Fuelled by the frustrations of three years on the sidelines he wouldn’t yield. Within two years he’d had enough of Brisbane and wanted to go home. He’d average just 10 games per season by then but the curve was trending upwards. Then came the shock change of heart to accept a lucrative offer from Melbourne just when Fremantle looked as keen to lure Clark back home to Western Australia as he was to get there.
Honesty and integrity have served Melbourne and Clark well in coming to this decision. Long may he be remembered as a courageous player cut down by injuries and a brave man, a father too, who realised the importance of the task ahead of him and embraced it as he would the contest: head on.