Sunday Territorian

Clarke goes well beyond numbers

- LIZ WALSH

HIS numbers alone are impressive: 15 AFL playing seasons; 258 games; 4600 hit outs; 1206 handballs; 1094 kicks; 127 wins; one coveted rising star nomination.

But it’s not always about the numbers. There’s football nous. Experience. A knowledge built up over time.

And these things can’t always be conveyed through statistics.

And for former Adelaide ruckman Matthew Clarke it’s that unseen stuff – all those bits and pieces in between the numbers – that matter most.

Perhaps that’s what makes him good coaching material and perhaps why – when the AFLW coaching position at the Crows was vacated by premiershi­p-winning coach Bec Goddard last year – he put his hand up for his first head coach role after 10 years as an assistant at his former club.

“I’ve been in footy for a long time, over 25 years, and what the AFLW and our women’s team has done for the Adelaide Footy Club are among the best things I have seen happen in footy in that period of time,” he says.

“AFLW didn’t exist two years ago, so I certainly hadn’t contemplat­ed (such a role) before two years ago, and in a large part, it was seeing the impact and effect that the team has had on our club in a lot of respects that made me put my hand up.

“Footy at its core, is a really great game and the fact that the women have embraced it so wholeheart­edly – in that first year, it was hard not to get swept up in it all.

“The next 10 years will see a dramatic increase in the standard and it’s exciting to have the chance to be involved.”

Clarke – known as “Doc” around the club thanks to his veterinary degree – says he’s now leading a team that in its first two years had already establishe­d a great culture.

So his aim is simply to consolidat­e it all.

“My coaching philosophy is to make sure the culture is really sound, make sure we look after our people, that the values of the group are consistent and then just try and create an environmen­t that enables them all to be as good as they can be.”

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