Des Clark (born 4 March 1972) is an Australian former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer. A journeyman or , he played for the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995–96) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in t ...

Gold Coast Chargers The Gold Coast Chargers were a professional rugby league club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from New South Wales Rugby League season 1988, 1988 to New South Wales Rugby League season 1994, 1994, the Australian Ru ...

Halifax Blue Sox The Halifax Panthers are a professional rugby league club in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which formed in 1873. Halifax were one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. They have been Rugby Leag ...

, St. Helens and

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

during his seven-year career.

Playing career

Originally from

Toowoomba, Queensland Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

, Clark joined the

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

in 1991 but did not play first grade for the club. In 1993, Clark joined the

. In Round 5 of the

1994 NSWRL season The 1994 NSWRL season (known as the 1994 Winfield Cup Premiership due to sponsorship from Winfield) was the eighty-seventh season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs, including 14 from within the borders of New South ...

Clark made his first grade debut in the Bears' 36–8 win over the

Gold Coast Seagulls The Gold Coast Chargers were a professional rugby league club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from 1988 to 1994, the Australian Rugby League premiership from 1995 to 1997, and the National Rugby League premiership ...

. Later that season, Clark made a mid-year switch to the

, playing 10 games for them that season. In 1995, Clark joined the

(and later Chargers), playing 27 games for the club over three seasons. In 1997, Clark played in the Chargers' first finals series, scoring a try in their major qualifying final loss to the

Sydney City Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

. In 1998, he signed with the

for the 1998 Super League season. Clark played 27 games for Halifax that season, scoring five tries. Clark played 24 games for Halifax in the 1999 season, before making a late season move to St. Helens. He left St Helens during their run to the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

to join French club

AS Carcassonne Association Sportive of Carcassonne are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Carcassonne in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie in the south of France. They play in the French Elite One Championship and a ...

. In 2000, Clark returned to Australia, playing two games for the

Statistics

NSWRL/ARL/NRL

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2000 season''

Super League/Challenge Cup

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Des 1972 births Living people Australian rugby league players Balmain Tigers players Gold Coast Chargers players Halifax R.L.F.C. players North Queensland Cowboys players North Sydney Bears players Rugby league players from Toowoomba Rugby league props St Helens R.F.C. players Australian expatriate rugby league players in England