Delisted #4 Ryan 'The Clamps' Clarke

[Kennedy Parker]

Ryan Clarke

Player Profile
The Sydney Swans recruited Ryan Clarke from North Melbourne ahead of season 2019 and he’s since shown promising signs as a young midfielder. The number four is a prolific ball-winner and can also be used to blanket a star on-baller, which he proved last year in shutting down gun Kangaroo Shaun Higgins and classy Magpie Steele Sidebottom. Clarke played 14 senior games in a stop-start 2019 campaign and has set his sights on cementing a spot in coach John Longmire’s best 22 this year. Draft history: 2015 National Draft selection (North Melbourne), No. 31 overall

Ryan Clarke

4

Ryan Clarke

Age

26

Ht

186cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.8

5star

K

9.1

4star

HB

9.7

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

2.2

4star

G

0.2

2star

D

18.5

4star

K

8.8

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.5

3star

G

0.3

3star

D

19.6

5star

K

7.0

3star

HB

12.6

5star

M

2.4

3star

T

2.2

4star

G

0.0

1star

DOB:17 June 1997
DEBUT:2016
DRAFT:2015
RECRUITED FROM: Rowville (Vic)/Melb Grammar (Vic)/Eastern U18/North Melb

Ryan Clarke | AFL

Follow Ryan Clarke's progress through AFL

www.sydneyswans.com.au

 

[5 GB USB]

I always saw something in Clarke. Was a whipping boy at north but the kid just knows where to go and finds the pill. His disposal as you’re starting to see is pretty average but his a kid and can learn. A professional and wants to get better. Honestly I would’ve kept him but that’s just me. I hope he turns out to be a 200 game player for the swans. Good luck in 2019 swans fans and a good year to Ryan.

 

[RUNVS]

I always saw something in Clarke. Was a whipping boy at north but the kid just knows where to go and finds the pill. His disposal as you’re starting to see is pretty average but his a kid and can learn. A professional and wants to get better. Honestly I would’ve kept him but that’s just me. I hope he turns out to be a 200 game player for the swans. Good luck in 2019 swans fans and a good year to Ryan.

and game sense, knowing where to be to get your hands on the ball is one of the hardest things to teach. In fact if a player doesn't know how to do it by the time they enter the AFL traditionally speaking a club can't really do much, as they are unlikely to learn. Rohan had all the tools to be a great player, but he never found the ball much in the juniors and that continued in the seniors. Seemingly his ability to find the ball never improved.

Clarke may have his faults but he knows how to get his hands on the ball which is very important. He is also hard at it, again something that is important and he is also willing to take the game on. Needs to work on his disposal of course but so did Tom Mitchell at the same age.

 

[scaryness]

Should probably wait for a real AFL game before we start calling him a 200 gamer.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

I would literally rather have an empty list spot in 2019 than Ryan Clarke still on our books. No crying here.

Well beggers can’t be choosers. After you added the likes of Martin, Kelly and Heeney to your list you no longer had a need for Clarke.

How do you guys do it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

"Polec" - a term used by a remote New Guinean tribe to satirize an anchovy as a big fish

 

[Page8383]

I was a bit of a Clarke fan - especially in 2017. Had a poor 2018 when we tried him in defence. He regressed a bit imo.
I smashed about 5 TVs last season with some of his turnovers out of the back half. Usually under zero pressure when we were out and everyone streaming forward.
Is a whipping boy which is a shame - good athlete, avg footballer was my assessment after 2018. Just added no value to our list and was just plugging a spot by the end of the season.
Some of his turnovers would literally halt the whole teams momentum.
I think if he’s on a wing he’s much happier and could be an asset.
Runs like the wind just needs to learn how to play - maybe it’s a confidence thing he can build on


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Arwib]

Clarke is also younger than most people think. He is only 21, turning 22 this season. He still has a lot of development in him.

And also played 40 games in those first 3 years, good to get some experience in when that young. Players who play that much footy early tend to pan out okay.

 

[S120]

I thought his game was good on the weekend, but his decision-making is certainly needing improvement. In the first quarter, he took a mark just outside 50 and had plenty of time to pick a relatively high-percentage option (a leading option, near the boundary to hopefully ensure the ball stays locked in, 10m out from goal for a mark). He decided to put a loopy up-and-under in to a one-on-one marking contest between Tom Papley and Jarrod Witts.

I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. That kind of decision making can't persist if we want to be a really good team.

 

[Arwib]

His first quarter was really scratchy, but he seemed to work his way into the swing of things after that

 

[BarneyBent]

From what I’ve seen of Clarke so far, his disposal/decision making is no worse than what we put up with from Hannebery even at Hanners’ best.

Clarke isn’t going to improve our disposal but he’s not going to make it worse either. And he’s shown he can win the ball, link up and make things happen both inside and out. At 21 he’s got plenty of upside.

 

[Tedeski]

Swan supporters getting really fussy of late.
As long as the kid wants to be a Swan & puts his head over the ball to win it 25 times & apply 5 tackles per game, then how could anyone not want to persevere with him?

He plays round one no matter what because our mids need someone tough who can help in there.

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Swan supporters getting really fussy of late.
As long as the kid wants to be a Swan & puts his head over the ball to win it 25 times & apply 5 tackles per game, then how could anyone not want to persevere with him?

He plays round one no matter what because our mids need someone tough who can help in there.

Geebers. You can always rely on Ted to post high quality sci fi

Remarkable

 

[GotTheGoodes]

Pretty happy with him. We know what we were getting... Ball winner with poorer than average disposal. He's just a kid and has games experience and fits our needs list and age profile. Hoepfully we can clean up his disposal a touch and/or play him to his strengths to limit his weaknesses.

I'm optimistic about him. Think he'll help cover that loss of Hanners gut running fairly well. If he puts his head over it and tackles well then even better... Cleans up his disposal too?? Geez, absolutely we have won that deal bigtime.... But, I'm just happy with him winning the ball and tackling well at this stage.

(Will yell at him mid/post-game for brain fades ala Towers though... In advance, I'm sorry Clarky, I don't mean all the bad stuff, you're a good kid. Keep at it. )

 

[S120]

I think Clarke could make very solid improvement this year. I'm holding out more hope for him to become a very good seniors player than Thurlow. Not that I think Thurlow is garbage, but I don't see him having a particularly big influence on our best 22 over the next 5-7 years. I think Clarke has the potential to.

 

[RUNVS]

I thought his game was good on the weekend, but his decision-making is certainly needing improvement. In the first quarter, he took a mark just outside 50 and had plenty of time to pick a relatively high-percentage option (a leading option, near the boundary to hopefully ensure the ball stays locked in, 10m out from goal for a mark). He decided to put a loopy up-and-under in to a one-on-one marking contest between Tom Papley and Jarrod Witts.

I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. That kind of decision making can't persist if we want to be a really good team.

I actually thought his decision making was quite good, it was just his disposal that let him down at times. He knew what to do with the ball, but did not always have the skills to carry that out.

 

[S120]

At 21 he’s got plenty of upside.

Looked it up and he's 13 months older than Florent. Very reasonable to expect improvement from him. Not every guy his age is ale to win the ball as easily as him and has since he entered the league, good base to build from.

 

[caesar88]

He is what he is. The way I see it, if a bloke can get 30 touches and 10 of them are blatant turnovers, we’re still doing better than we were last year. In 2018 we couldn’t actually get the ball in our hands, it felt so weird watching Swans midfielders be spectators in their own games. If Clarke winning so much of the footy even in ugly ways can get the ball to a classy type like Florent or Hayward then they are ugly possessions I’ll happily take.

 

[The King!]

Cheaper than Hannebery and basically gets it more than he did last year and butchers it at the same cli-

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Keep his role simple and work within his limitations then he'll be a good role player for us I reckon. Anyone who's got the natural ball-winning ability is more likely to make it than not.

 

[Superstar swan]

Not sold on clarke..absolute butcher of the ball..depth for me. Il be spewing if he gets picked and dawson doesnt

 

[caesar88]

Not sold on clarke..absolute butcher of the ball..depth for me. Il be spewing if he gets picked and dawson doesnt

Put it this way, as far as midfielders go, I have JPK, Parker, Heeney, Hewett and probably Florent and Jones as better than Clarke. That puts him as our sixth or seventh-best mid. We are going OK if a bloke who can rack up possessions even if they're ugly scrappy ones can be not even in our top five mids. The way I see it, Clarke is not in that first group of mids who can win matches for us. But if we want those match-winners to thrive and do what they do best, they'll need support. That support comes from the blokes like Clarke, the ones who will do the ugly stuff that makes it easier for those top guys.

I will concede that if Clarke is in our best players every week and becomes one of our best mids, I think that wouldn't be a good sign and we'd be in trouble. But I can definitely see how his role in the team is important and the benefits of having him around.

 

[Superstar swan]

Put it this way, as far as midfielders go, I have JPK, Parker, Heeney, Hewett and probably Florent and Jones as better than Clarke. That puts him as our sixth or seventh-best mid. We are going OK if a bloke who can rack up possessions even if they're ugly scrappy ones can be not even in our top five mids. The way I see it, Clarke is not in that first group of mids who can win matches for us. But if we want those match-winners to thrive and do what they do best, they'll need support. That support comes from the blokes like Clarke, the ones who will do the ugly stuff that makes it easier for those top guys.

I will concede that if Clarke is in our best players every week and becomes one of our best mids, I think that wouldn't be a good sign and we'd be in trouble. But I can definitely see how his role in the team is important and the benefits of having him around.

What makes it hard is that he accumulates alot of the ball, which means he turns it over alot. I remember when rhys palmer was dominating when he first came into the league, rocket eade told us at footy function that he instructs his players to leave palmer open and encourage the dockers to play through him because it was a 70/30 proposition that the ball would land in one of his players hands and they could exploit the dockers on the turn over.. this is the risk we have with clarke

 

[caesar88]

What makes it hard is that he accumulates alot of the ball, which means he turns it over alot. I remember when rhys palmer was dominating when he first came into the league, rocket eade told us at footy function that he instructs his players to leave palmer open and encourage the dockers to play through him because it was a 70/30 proposition that the ball would land in one of his players hands and they could exploit the dockers on the turn over.. this is the risk we have with clarke

But as I said in a post above, even if he turns it over 50% of the time, he'll still have another 50% of disposals that will go to Swans. Don't forget last year we couldn't even get our hands on the pill to turn it over. If we can at least have someone who can hunt and find the ball at will, we increase our chances of the ball being in Swans possession. Then it's up to the classier guys like Heeney, Hewett, Florent etc to make things happen.

 

[Big Blood]

I thought his game was good on the weekend, but his decision-making is certainly needing improvement. In the first quarter, he took a mark just outside 50 and had plenty of time to pick a relatively high-percentage option (a leading option, near the boundary to hopefully ensure the ball stays locked in, 10m out from goal for a mark). He decided to put a loopy up-and-under in to a one-on-one marking contest between Tom Papley and Jarrod Witts.

That had me screaming too. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

On the positive, Clarke is a bit of a Hannebery-Lite. Not as elite but has big tank, gets the ball, turns it over. It's like Dan never left.

 

[Tedeski]

What makes it hard is that he accumulates alot of the ball, which means he turns it over alot. I remember when rhys palmer was dominating when he first came into the league, rocket eade told us at footy function that he instructs his players to leave palmer open and encourage the dockers to play through him because it was a 70/30 proposition that the ball would land in one of his players hands and they could exploit the dockers on the turn over.. this is the risk we have with clarke

That's why Rocket was so successful as a coach in finals................................oh wait!