Xavier Clarke (born 28 September 1983) 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 ...

player who played for St Kilda and

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

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).

Early life

Clarke has

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

heritage and his ancestry can be traced to the Gambalang people of the Daly River region of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. Originally from Darwin-based St Mary's Football Club in the

Northern Territory Football League The Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) is an Australian rules football competition, operating in Greater Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and the Northern Territory, formerly run by the Northern Territory Football League Incorporated a ...

(NTFL), Clarke was a leading junior player and was tipped to be a first round choice at the

2001 AFL Draft The 2001 AFL draft consisted of a state draft, a body draft, a pre-season draft and a trade period. The AFL draft is the annual draft of players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Austr ...

Playing career

Clarke was selected by St Kilda with their first round choice, the fifth overall, in the 2001 AFL Draft was presented with the number 20

guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

and made his senior AFL debut in the

2002 AFL season The 2002 AFL season was the 106th 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 sixt ...

, where he was nominated as an

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Bu ...

. Clarke's brother

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

was also drafted by St Kilda, as Clarke played 57 games during his first three seasons, taking over the number 3 guernsey from former St Kilda captain Nathan Burke when Burke retired at the end of the

2003 AFL season The 2003 AFL season was the 107th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level of senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured ...

. In

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Clarke he struggled in form and his season ended early when he injured his

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

in Round 17 against Collingwood. Clarke continued to struggle with injuries for the rest of his AFL career and following the

2009 AFL season The 2009 AFL season was the 113th 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 sixt ...

a deal was struck between St Kilda and Brisbane in which Clarke transferred to Brisbane in exchange for draft pick number 60 in the

2009 AFL Draft The 2009 AFL draft consisted of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2009/10 Australian Football League off-season. These were the trade week (held between 5 October and 9 October), the national draft (held on 26 November), the ...

. Clarke played his only game for Brisbane in the Round 18,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

loss to

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

at Brisbane's home ground,

the Gabba The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the Gab ...

. Clarke suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury in the first half, and while he was originally ruled out for a week, Clarke did not play again. In

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, Clarke almost completed a full preseason when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and, although offered a rookie list position by Brisbane, retired from football at the end of the 2011 season.

Coaching career

Clarke became head coach of the NT Thunder in the NEAFL in 2014. He won the league's Coach of the Year award that season before taking them to a premiership in 2015. In 2017 he joined as a VFL assistant coach. In 2020 he will serve as head coach of the club's VFL side.

Honours and achievements

* NEAFL Premiership Coach: 2015 * NEAFL Coach of the Year: 2014 * NT Sports Awards Coach of the Year: 2016

Other work

Clarke has also worked with the AFL and the

AFL Players Association The AFL Players Association (AFLPA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players. The AFLPA promotes and protects its member ...

(AFLPA) in Indigenous engagement and was a founding director of the Unity Foundation which worked to provide housing and support for homeless Indigenous youth.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Xavier 1983 births Living people St Kilda Football Club players Brisbane Lions players St Mary's Football Club (NTFL) players Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football 21st-century Indigenous Australian people Casey Demons players Sandringham Football Club players West Preston Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Darwin, Northern Territory Larrakia people 21st-century Australian sportsmen