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

er who played with the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

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

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 States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

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 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 the f ...

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 Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

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

Death

Clarke died from coronary atherosclerosis 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 footballers from Cairns