Troy Clarke (8 June 1969 – 28 October 2013) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played with the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/A ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL) during the 1990s. He is a member of the Queensland Football Hall of Fame.

Career

Early career

Clarke represented Queensland at interstate football from junior level and was just 17 when he won the Crathern Medal with South Cairns as the "

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

" player in the 1986

AFL Cairns AFL Cairns is a semi-professional Australian rules football league that includes clubs from the Cairns region in Queensland, Australia. It is widely regarded as the strongest regional Australian rules football league in Queensland and has a lar ...

season.

West Torrens

In 1987, he joined

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

club West Torrens and spent his four seasons playing mostly as a wingman. He was selected in the 1989 "West End All Stars Team of the Year".

Brisbane Bears

Despite not making onto the Brisbane Bears list when they joined the competition in 1987, Clarke's efforts in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

saw him signed by the club in 1991. He participated in their reserves premiership that year and also represented Queensland in a

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

win over Victoria. Small, fast and versatile, Clarke was used in many positions by Brisbane and received 12

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 ...

votes during his career. An injury sustained in 1995 meant he had to undergo a knee reconstruction which ultimately ended his AFL career.

Coaching

Clarke took over from Lance Spaulding as coach of Sandy Bay for the 1997 TFL Statewide League season in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. The following season he took over as coach of the newly formed Southern Cats.

Death

Clarke died from

coronary atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis in which the wall of the artery develops abnormalities, called lesions. These lesions may lead to narrowing due to the buildup of atheromatous plaque. At onset there are usually no sy ...

on 28 October 2013, aged 44.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Troy 1969 births 2013 deaths Brisbane Bears players West Torrens Football Club players Sandy Bay Football Club players Sandy Bay Football Club coaches Deaths from coronary artery disease Australian rules football players from Cairns