ELLINBANK AND DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE
SENIOR GRAND FINAL – THE MIDFIELD GENERAL
By Russell Bennett
WHAT set Ricky Clark apart as a player was never his skill, strength or even toughness – and it certainly wasn’t his size.
It was his mindset.
By his own admission, there was “probably 40” of him growing up through state trials and Stingrays trials.
“But I had to be better in some way – somehow – than the rest,” he said.
“I believed that I am better than them. It’s probably not right, but I believed it. A lot of people might say I was arrogant – especially in the early days, in my 20s – but I had to be. I had to be going out there thinking I was better than the bloke playing on me. If I didn’t, then I’d lost already. You have to have unwavering self-belief.
“I will stand here at the end of my career and say that’s what got me through, and that’s what got me to the games that I played in. There’s been plenty of blokes better than me at the same height and with the same ability.”
Clark retired on Saturday afternoon, an 11-time senior grand finalist – six of those premierships. He played incredibly consistent footy across stints at Narre Warren, Gembrook-Cockatoo, and Cora Lynn and – remarkably – from the ages of 32 to 34 he won club best and fairests in premiership years and was named in the Gazette’s EDFL Team of the Year each time.
But he’d reconciled in his own mind recently that he wasn’t going to play on. Physically and mentally he couldn’t keep going at the standards he’d set himself, so he made the call to pull the pin.
“I reckon the middle of last week or the week before I spoke to Terry (Dillon) and we came up with a plan to maybe train less and play next year on less money and with less involvement,” said an incredibly candid Clark, reflecting on his career at Cora Lynn on Saturday night.
“I had a think about it and really thought that for me at 34 I can’t do it. I’ve never been one to do things by halves. If I’m going to do something I’ll do it flat-out – put time and everything into it.
“I went to a clinic in Box Hill to get a cortisone injection in my groin – my groins have been shot for the past two months with pretty bad osteitis pubis.
“Out of the last five games of the (home and away season) I missed three. I was done. I’d put a lot of time and effort into fitness since midway through 2014 and then never really had a break. It just got too much in the end.”
Clark even admitted considering pulling out of Saturday’s grand final.
“I woke up this morning and hobbled to the shower and contemplated ringing Mainy (David Main) and saying “I can’t give you anything today – I’m that bad.”
And prior to Saturday’s game, his body gave him one final sign that enough was enough.
“I was trying to stretch my glutes out and my left knee just popped. I didn’t know what happened.”
Clark will always consider himself a Narre Warren person at heart, but looks back incredibly fondly on his time at both Gembrook and Cora Lynn – even though he admits his season as coach of the Brookers was a mistake. He still harbours coaching ambitions, but the timing – specifically – was all wrong.
“We’d grown the Gembrook group into grand finalists and they were amazing, but at the end of four years with Trav (Marsham) – and he demands a hell of a lot – they were shot,” Clark admitted.
“I took over the job and probably that year was the most challenging year I’ve had in footy.
“(But) Gembrook gave me a lot. It’s got a real home feeling to it and they definitely have something unique in between those four walls.
“Going to other clubs has taught me to open up, meet different people, experience different styles and how they go about it.
“I’ve always strived to be the best in any group, whether that’s football or in my business. I’ll always strive to be better than everyone. It doesn’t often work, but that’s what I want.”
Clark’s time at Cora Lynn has been, simply, a dream run alongside some of his closest mates.
“I’d had phone calls from Bunyip and Garfield – the clubs that were close to where I live in Bunyip – and obviously I’m very close with Trav.
“Terry rang me to coach and I’d just come off coaching at Gembrook and said there’s no way known I’d do it but I’d be happy to talk about playing and I did have a guy who was ready-made to go – Trav Marsham.
“It was funny because I still hadn’t made my mind up and Trav had taken the job on.
“He rang me about a week later and said ‘I’ve taken the job, what’re you doing?’. I said I didn’t have any idea, but he said he was taking it and told me to make my decision but obviously the alliance with Trav and I has been strong over a number of years.”
Clark has thrown everything he could into his footy, and now he’s going to do the same with his family.
“Rhiannon, my wife, said to me a week ago to do what I wanted to do – she’d support me – and I said that was amazing, but deep down I know she’s ready for a rest too,” he said.
“It’s harder for the wives and girlfriends who’ve been there for that long. To bring three kids to a footy game on a Saturday and look after them and feed them – and it’s Tuesday nights, Thursdays, and I’m in my zone on Saturday right from the time I wake up – it’s really hard for them.
“I’m ready to spend that time with my kids, because quite quickly they grow up. I’ve got a five-year-old in love with football and I’ve got no doubt that me playing football and them being around that’s why they love it, and that’s what I wanted.
“I’ve got two boys – five and three – who are football fanatics.
“One of them does Auskick at Bunyip so I’m involved with Bunyip in some way.
“I can categorically say that I’ve got to know a few more people in Bunyip over the past 12 months since last year’s grand final and I’ll classify them both now and in the future as good friends.
“I’ve been there for three-and-a-half, four years and you get to know people and it’s a really good community. I love it.”
