John Edward "Jack" Clarke (14 July 1933 – 3 December 2001) was an Australian rules footballer and coach in the

VFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

. An Essendon and Victorian champion, Clarke was one of the premier midfielders of the VFL for well over a decade, Clarke led Essendon to the flag in 1962 as captain, and also played in the victorious 1965 side. Clarke was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and was named as the centreman of the Essendon Team of the Century in 1997.

Family

He was the son of Tom Clarke, the curator at the Essendon Cricket Ground (Windy Hill) and a former Essendon and Brunswick footballer; additionally, he was the older brother of the well-known distance runner

Ron Clarke Ronald William Clarke, AO, MBE (21 February 1937 – 17 June 2015) was an Australian athlete, writer, and the Mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012. He was one of the best-known middle- and long-distance runners in the 1960s, notable fo ...

Architect

Clarke was a noted architect, who studied during the early stages of his VFL career.

Football

Clarke was a talented

centreman The centre (or center in the United States) in ice hockey is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play is the middle of the ice, away from the sideboards. Centres have more flexibility in their positioning and therefore often e ...

who debuted on his eighteenth birthday in 1951 and played 263 games for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their ...

from 1951 to 1967, kicking 180 goals. At the time of his retirement he was third in the all-time ranks of both games played (263) and games captained (121) at Essendon, on both occasions being bested by his mid-field predecessors,

Bill Hutchison William Henry Hutchison (28 April 1923 – 18 June 1982), often referred to as "Hutchy", was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL) with the Essendon Football Club, who played 290 VFL games, from 1942 to 1957, a ...

and

Dick Reynolds Richard Sylvannus Reynolds (20 June 1915 – 2 September 2002) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Reynolds is one of four footballers to have won three Brownl ...

, under whose guidance he had played his entire career. Clarke played in strong Essendon teams that featured legends such as Hutchison, John Coleman,

John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...

, Barry Davis, Hugh Mitchell and

Ken Fraser Ken Fraser (born 17 February 1940) is a former Australian rules footballer in the (then) Victorian Football League (VFL). Originally recruited from the Essendon Baptists St John's club (which has since merged with Ascot Vale Presbyterians to ...

, but Clarke was never overlooked by opposition coaches and regularly polled well in the Essendon Best and Fairest award, winning the award in 1958 and 1962. Clarke was not as successful in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

, with best finishes of equal 6th in 1958, and equal 7th in 1953 at the age of 20. Clarke captained the club from 1958 to 1964, winning one premiership and winning two Best and Fairest awards while in the role. In Round 17, 1958, Clarke was the second of only three captains in league history to have called for a headcount; however, the teams were even.

Coach

He took over from John Coleman as Essendon coach in 1968, taking the team 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 ...

, which they narrowly lost to Carlton. He was replaced as coach at the end of the 1970 season when Essendon finished 11th (of 12).

Hall of Fame

He was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, co ...

in 1996.

Champions of Essendon

In 2002 an Essendon panel ranked him at 8 in their ''

Champions of Essendon The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their ...

'': a list of the 25 greatest players ever to have played for Essendon.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Jack E. 1933 births 2001 deaths Essendon Football Club coaches Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club Premiership players Champions of Essendon All-Australians (1953–1988) Crichton Medal winners Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players