Marty Clarke

[downredblack]

Who really cares who the lad supports ? He is a credit to himself his family and Down / Ireland / NI  / Europe whatever  and the Aussies love him . Fair play to him and yes every Down fan would love to see him home but only when he has achieved all he wants down under .


Former Down footballer Martin Clarke's success in the AFL is so amazing that a top Aussie scout has described him as a 'freak' given his rapid conversion from GAA player to AFL star.

Clarke joined the AFL club two years ago and has been a real success story in terms of how quickly he has adapted to the oval ball game, so much so that the AFL has began searching the country heavily for top young GAA talents in the country this summer.



Top Aussie scout Craig Cameron has been as impressed as anyone with the former Mourne star, saying: "He (Clarke) is a freak in terms of how quickly he has gone from playing a foreign game to playing Aussie Rules.

"We draft boys at 17 and 18 in Australia and they don't get to that stage so quickly."

Speaking at the AFL recruitment camps for young Gaelic Games stars in Breaffy, Co Mayo this week, organising agent Ricky Nixon claimed that not every young Irish player looking to succeed in an AFL career can have what Clarke has.

"Marty Clarke has been an exceptional success, and I don't think that you will see another Marty Clarke in the next five or ten years. I hope we do.

"These guys are going to need a year or two of proper development training. Physically, the boys sitting here with me are not strong enough to play Aussie football.

"Marty Clarke is a human medicine ball. He is just so strong and quick and he has everything else."

[Mourne Rover]

Martin Clarke also supports Derby County, if a few sad types want to get stuck into him over that as well. As this is supposed to be a GAA forum, I was more interested in the suggestion from the aptly named Muppet that Clarke did not play particularly well in the 2005 AI minor final. He actually almost missed it entirely due to a hand injury, but, in the game I was at, he won every ball that came anywhere near him, set up a string of Down attacks and was probably the biggest single reason that we were ten points up by the middle of the second half and coasted through the closing stages. He also kicked a monster point from outside the 45m line that brought gasps from even the Tyrone supporters on Hill 16. Clarke probably played even better in the QF against Galway and the semi against Offaly, but we simply do not know how he would perform at senior level for Down. I only hope we get the chance to find out.

[gallsman]

Sligonian, I aksed you earlier why it is "disappointing" to yuo that he supports Norn Iron. Again, what concern is it of yours? Were you all set to be mates until you found this out? Were you hoping he'd come home to try his hand at playing fro Trap or something? Why the hell does who he supports in a different sport affect your opinion of him at all??? That's where my suggustion of small mindedness came from.

[time ticking away]

Martin Clarke is the best minor footballer i have seen in a long long time. bar none, Donie Kingston included. Did Donie give his new house back by the way

[Jinxy]

Martin Clarke is the best minor footballer i have seen in a long long time. bar none, Donie Kingston included. Did Donie give his new house back by the way

In fairness though, there are a vast amount of minor footballers you never got to see in the flesh. Just like the rest of us. I remember watching Beano McDonald in his 3rd year as a minor tearing Meath apart in Croke Park. He was absolutely devastating. He's retired now.

[SLIGONIAN]

Don't know what all the abuse of Sligonian is about.  I too find it strange  that a GAA playing lad should support Norn Iron at a time when fellow  Gael Neil Lennon was the subject of foul sectarian abuse from the teams supporters.  Totally his own business but odd - thats all.

I follow Martys career and Aussie Rules with great interest because its a terrific game and hes a terrific player.  Long may his rise continue and hope he is able to make himself available for the Irish national sside come October

Exactly and seconded.

Sligonian, I aksed you earlier why it is "disappointing" to yuo that he supports Norn Iron. Again, what concern is it of yours? Were you all set to be mates until you found this out? Were you hoping he'd come home to try his hand at playing fro Trap or something? Why the hell does who he supports in a different sport affect your opinion of him at all??? That's where my suggustion of small mindedness came from.

Maybe its because i dont particularly like NI fans or what they stand for. So when marty said what he said my natural reaction was disappointment. But to be honest its not something i hold against anyone its not that big a deal. It is merely an observation.

For example if I ever settle down in lets say mayo and my son started supporting mayo i would probably disown him . Thats for you ludermor.

[corn02]

Will we overlook the booing of Peter Lovenkrads in Lansdowne aswel lads?

[orangeman]

We're veering off track with this lads !

[Down Gael]

Who really cares who the lad supports ? He is a credit to himself his family and Down / Ireland / NI  / Europe whatever  and the Aussies love him . Fair play to him and yes every Down fan would love to see him home but only when he has achieved all he wants down under .

Very well said Downredblack.
Maybe its not the done thing on this board, but I and I am sure many other "supported" NI in 1982 and 1986. I was delighted that they beat England a couple of years ago and Spain and if they were to qualify for another major tournament I would have no bother cheering them on. I`ve never been to Windsor and I am unlikely to go, but I dont see how anyones support of the North is a problem.
The 1966 Ulster final in casement park announced the result of the World Cup final to loud applause 

[Joe Umbrella (hey)]

Don't know what all the abuse of Sligonian is about.  I too find it strange  that a GAA playing lad should support Norn Iron at a time when fellow  Gael Neil Lennon was the subject of foul sectarian abuse from the teams supporters.  Totally his own business but odd - thats all.

What a F8cking stupid statement, did you not find it strange then that Neil Lennon was actually playing for N.I. being a 'fellow Gael' and all that?

Most of Norn Irelands best soccer players in the past were catholics who were decent gaelic footballers also ie: O'Neill, Jennings, Donaghy, Armstrong, and there always has been a minority of catholics who support them (I'm certainly not one of them) and always will be. It's not strange, just part of life for people in the 'north'.

[zoyler]

Professional soccer players at the time had no choice who they could play for.  I'am ols enough to remember the abuse Jennings got frrom the Spion Kop the few times I went to see George Best.  In fairness the IFA are making some efforts to change things and even Linfield are trying harder then Rangers to clean up their act!

[scalder]

"Who really cares who the lad supports ?"  In all fairness he's mentioned this in a number of articles now so it's obvious he cares and it is public knowledge and so its fair to comment too. I suppose from my perspective I find it odd when you consider the background to the NI statelet and the injustices and crimes perpetrated on GAA people and nationalists by the forces of this state, Bloody Sunday, the shooting Aidan McAnaspie to name a couple, that anyone from that tradition could hold the state and it any sort of esteem. International sport is by its nature political and jingoistic so IMO its impossible to separate the state from the team which is a very public expression, in fact one of the only remaining ones, of the existence of a separate Northern state and partition. I for one want to see a united Ireland and not a modernised, sanitised Union given a PR make over and made presentable.
Clarke is doing well in Auzz, great for him but lets hope he is an exception or Gaelic football in 5 years year time, shorn of its exciting up and coming talent, will be the poorer for it.

[Dubh driocht]

.  I'am ols enough to remember the abuse Jennings got frrom the Spion Kop the few times I went to see George Best.  In fairness the IFA are making some efforts to change things and even Linfield are trying harder then Rangers to clean up their act!

Lot of nonsense on this thread.
Zoyler, I am also 'ols enough' to have seen Pat Jennings play for NI and never remember him getting any abuse-ask him yourself.
This is not about NI, there is enough garbage talked about them - it is about Marty Clarke- a credit to Cranfield, An Riocht, An Dun , NI, I ,and the world.Period.

[Mourne Rover]

If Scalder believes we should take nothing to do with the northern state because of Bloody Sunday and Aidan McAnespie (not McAnaspie), I wonder what he thinks we should do about the people who blew up the Athletic Grounds and robbed Casement Park ? The truth is that the GAA has suffered at the hands of a range of groups in the past. We can either boycott them all or try to move forward.

Down Gael is quite right to say that we should take a relaxed attitude to the NI/RoI soccer debate, but I am not sure about his suggestion that the result of the 1966 World Cup final was announced to the crowd at that year's Ulster final. I was at the game at Casement Park, and I cannot remember that happening. A quick Google shows that the World Cup final was played on a Saturday (July 30), so the idea that the score really was announced at Casement seems a little unlikely. The 1966 Ulster final, in which Down beat Donegal, was actually shown live on BBC television, something which did not happen again for almost another 30 years.

[Main Street]

Zoyler, I am also 'ols enough' to have seen Pat Jennings play for NI and never remember him getting any abuse-ask him yourself.
This is not about NI, there is enough garbage talked about them - it is about Marty Clarke- a credit to Cranfield, An Riocht, An Dun , NI, I ,and the world.Period.

Then don't contradict about things you do not know.
Pat Jennings is on public record as saying he recieved sustained and persistant sectarian abuse from some NI fans.
http://www.newryjournal.co.uk/content/view/74/38/
It doesn't fit the OWC convenient explanation that catholics only got booed if they played with Celtic.

More power to Marty Clarke though.