Down facing battle to keep Clarke
Like Tadhg Kennelly’s situation 12 months earlier, the dust had hardly settled on this season’s All-Ireland final before thoughts turned to Martin Clarke and whether or not he would return to the lure of Australia Rules Football.
The man himself has been notoriously media-shy since his decision to choose his county over Collingwood in the AFL but the question was exercising the minds of many others in the Down camp yesterday.
“Oh, he’ll be hot property,” said midfielder Kalum King, the cage-fighter who has declared for Down in 2011.
“I do think he’ll stay. I don’t know for how long but I would reckon he’ll be here next year and after as well.”
Many a county has suffered the loss of up-and-coming stars to the AFL but Clarke’s probably outweighed all the others. As Benny Coulter said before the final, he was probably Down’s best-ever underage talent.
The prospect of losing such a gem for a second time would be hard to bear and undo much of the progress made by the county this summer but King believes the game in general can ill afford to allow him depart.
“Maybe the GAA could do something to keep him here. I read somewhere that he could be a potential GAA poster boy or that, rather than letting the Aussies take one of our best prospects, that they could do something to keep him here. I do think he could be a poster boy because he’s well mannered, he’s humble and he’s got all the skill in the world. Why would you want to let the Aussies take him? Maybe it’s something for them to think about.”
James McCartan was thinking along similar lines.
The Down manager described Clarke as a “special case” but admitted that the GAA’s hands were tied financially given the Association’s amateur status.
Clarke returned home late last year and took up a job as a coaching officer but Collingwood were already in the process of coaxing him back to Melbourne as early as last April, if not before.
McCartan, sounding understandably sombre after the events of the previous afternoon, denied that he was resigned to Clarke leaving again and stressed that, whatever the decision, the player owed his county nothing.
“Quality is quality. One can only assume that they recognise that when they see it. Marty is class. Of course they will be looking at him. We are just delighted to have him for the here and now.
“Should that be just for this year, should that be if we manage to garner another year, it would be brilliant. I don’t think that if and when the time comes that the man does follow a different road that anyone in Down can have any complaints. I do think it will be disappointing from a GAA perspective (if he goes).”
If anything, Down’s hopes of retaining the 22-year old’s services for 2011 may have been improved by their narrow loss to Cork on Sunday as Kennelly had the Celtic Cross he coveted so much when he opted for a return to Sydney.
Clarke enjoyed a superb debut senior season with the Ulster county but found it difficult to leave his imprint on the final thanks in no small part to the defensive efforts of his marker Noel O’Leary.
“I am just grateful for the here and now and the fact that we have the man,” said McCartan. “All I can tell you … not only is Martin Clarke a very special footballer but he is a very special individual and any decision that he makes as regards his future I will certainly respect it.”
