David Andrew Clarke (born 15 May 1980) is a former

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

and Carlton in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). Originally from Torquay, Clarke was a father/son selection by Geelong, who used a second round pick on him. Coming from a strong sporting family, his father David Clarke Sr played over 200 games for Geelong and his brother Tim played with Hawthorn, while his sister is Olympic runner

Georgie Clarke Georgina "Georgie" Clarke (born 17 June 1984 in Geelong) is an Australian athlete who specialised in the middle-distance events. She won multiple international medals at youth and junior levels. She competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney ...

. Clarke, a pacy wingman, graduated from the

Geelong Falcons The Geelong Falcons is a youth Australian rules football representative club in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition in Victoria, Australia. The club takes in talented junior players from the Geelong, Colac and Warr ...

to make his AFL debut in 1999. He was a prolific ball winner but was often let down by kicking and put together 68 consecutive games from 2000 to 2003. Clarke had the second largest number of disposals for Geelong in 2001 and 2002, averaging 17 a game in both seasons. He struggled with both his form and injuries in 2003 and was involved in a three-way trade in that year's draft, where Hawthorn received Simon Beaumont and Geelong got

David Loats David Loats (born 13 February 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer. Loats played five seasons for Hawthorn in 1999–2003, before playing one season for Geelong in 2004, in the AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation ...

. Clarke ended up at Carlton and played ten games in the

2004 AFL season The 2004 AFL season was the 108th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured si ...

. With his first appearance in 2005 he brought up his 100th AFL game, against Adelaide at Football Park, but played just once more for Carlton. He was delisted at the end of 2005. From 2006 until 2007, Clarke played with South Adelaide in the

SANFL 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 sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

. In 2008, he switched to

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

, and played there until 2009. In 2010, Clarke returned to the city of Geelong, and joined St Mary's in the

Geelong Football League The Geelong Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is widely regarded as the highest-standard Australian rules football league in regional Victoria, with sever ...

(GFL), where he played until 2012. In July 2012, Clarke was suspended for 15 weeks for crouching behind and tripping a GFL umpire, who was running backwards after a ball-up. The incident brought Clarke's cumulative career suspensions to 20 matches, which resulted in his deregistration under the nationwide Player Deregistration Policy, bringing an end to Clarke's playing career. Following on from his lifetime ban, a reborn Clarke continued his career in country Victoria, playing for the

Mansfield Football Club The Mansfield Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Eagles'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in Mansfield, Victoria. The Mansfield teams currently compete in the Goulburn Valley League. The ''Eagles'' home ground is ...

in the

Goulburn Valley Football Netball League The Goulburn Valley League (GVL), also known as the Goulburn Valley Football Netball League (GVFNL), is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria. History The league was initially call ...

, and Lockington-Bamawm United in the

Heathcote District Football League The Heathcote District Football League (HDFL) is an Australian rules football competition based in the Heathcote, Victoria, Heathcote region and major Bendigo area with clubs based in the regions of City of Greater Bendigo, Shire of Campaspe, a ...

.Bendigo Advertiser
14 January 2015, Retrieved 5 April 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, David 1980 births Geelong Football Club players Carlton Football Club players North Adelaide Football Club players South Adelaide Football Club players Geelong Falcons players St Mary's Sporting Club Inc players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Living people People educated at Geelong College