Ex-Docker and AFL ruckman Zac Clarke details highs and lows of a career which has taken him to WA, Victoria and back

The former Fremantle and Essendon ruckman will miss the clash between his two AFL teams this weekend.

He has returned to home town Melbourne for a few days because Subiaco has a weekend off.

But after 110 games in the AFL and 94 at WAFL level, Clarke is still loving footy.

The Lions have surprised teams in their climb back up the WAFL ladder. In the past Subiaco’s success was built on a gnarly, mature hard-bodied midfield.

This year it has been built off the back of a younger and emerging engine room playing at the feet of an utterly dominant ruckman who also helps to coach the team’s kids.

“It has been enjoyable,” Clarke said.

“There is a new coaching staff and there is a very young and emerging player group. It is more of a coaching role rather than just playing and I am enjoying that challenge and seeing some of the young guys develop.

“We have had a few new faces in there and it is a case of trying to get them up to speed.”

Clarke, an athletic beanpole of a ruckman in his early days at Fremantle, has dominated hit-outs in the WAFL this year to the point that in 10 games he has not had fewer than 30 in a match, has had fewer than 40 just three times and once has topped fifty.

In the dominant Subiaco performance against reigning Premier West Perth at the weekend Clarke had 45 hit-outs to go with 12 marks, 23 disposals and a goal.

But it is the part time coaching role Clarke agreed to take on when he rejoined Subiaco at the start of the season that he is enjoying as much as anything.

“I enjoy the challenge of passing on knowledge. I think my first game in the WAFL was in 2009. I have played a lot of WAFL footy in that time and a lot of other footy. I enjoy the challenge of passing on experience – what it was like at AFL clubs working with top tier midfielders or other ruckman and what type of tricks and tips I use and how I break down the opposition rucks,” he said.

It has been a rollercoaster ride for Clarke, who at Fremantle from 2009 to 2016 played as Aaron Sandilands’ ruck assistant hitting to Nathan Fyfe, David Mundy, Stephen Hill and at times even Matthew Pavlich.

He played a further nine games at Essendon in 2019 when he was brought back into the AFL as the Bombers rebuilt from the rubble and chaos that followed in the years after the Supplements scandal that saw their player list decimated by WADA bans.

And he also had to endure suburban controversy at the end of last season when handed a two-match ban in an Eastern Football league match in Melbourne from an unfortunate incident which left Balwyn and former St KIlda player Eli Templeton unconscious for several minutes.

Clarke, playing for Doncaster East and in pursuit of a ball bouncing towards the boundary line had nudged Templeton as the ball crossed the line and Templeton had tumbled over the fence and crashed head first into the pavement on the other side.

“It was disappointing – the way it got construed in the media,” Clarke said.

“It was a bit of a freak accident. It is not something I have done in the past or been known for. It was a tough period. But we got through it and thankfully the player was all right.”

It was a good time for Clarke to come back to Perth.

He spent a decade here during his time at Fremantle and after – still considers himself a “Freo” boy and will be pulling for the Dockers when his two former AFL clubs clash at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.

“I am still a Freo man. I will be hoping they can get the win. I have close mates there so I will be hoping the boys play well and they get the win,” he said.

Clarke was taken at pick 37 in the 2008 national draft for the Dockers in a massive rebuild operation that saw the club bring in 12 players through the national and rookie drafts that year.

Six players from those drafts — Clarke, Stephen Hill, Hayden Ballantyne, Matt De Boer, Nick Suban and Michael Walters — played in Fremantle’s grand final team in 2013 while dual Brownlow Medallist Nathan Fyfe had arrived a year after Clarke in the 2009 draft.

They were a close young group, Clarke said.

“I remember thinking there were a lot of first year players in my first year and 10 years later you realise no other club has taken that many picks in a draft.”

“It was fun to be a part of. We had a great little group. We have all gone in different directions in life but we all catch up and still keep in contact which is good,” he said.

He believes one of the reasons he has a lot of knowledge to pass onto Subiaco’s young midfield group is the quality of midfielders he played alongside at Fremantle.

“There were some absolute superstars. You had Fyfey, Mundy, Pav when he went through there, Lachie Neale who came in a bit later. Stephen Hill was a gun from day one.They were certainly top line players,” he said.

“I learned a lot from them in terms of what they liked and how they worked and I am trying to pass that on to our guys.”

Clarke played in Subiaco’s premiership team in 2018 but you get the feeling he would look forward to winning one with this younger group of Lions even more.

“Before I signed up I had a few good chats with the midfield coach Nigel Hamilton. I said where is your list at? We kind of broke it down. I said if I am coming I am coming to win finals and a flag. We had really talented kids in the reserves grand final that won a flag last year. We thought we needed a handful of them to step up and be regular league players – I think that is really driving the club,” he said.

“The team in 2018 – you knew exactly what you were going to get from each guy. Everyone had their set roles and you would go out there and repeat the same thing every week. It was really predictable,” he said. “This year we have guys playing similar roles but some guys lack a bit of experience and we keep them up to speed. Remind them, stick to task. It is fun watching them develop and improve and a lot of the guys going through there are playing really consistent footy which is great.”

And consistency is what he is enjoying most about his own game this year.

“I pretty much go out there and ruck for eighty to ninety per cent of the game. Most of the weeks I am giving a pretty similar output which is good and it is predictable for the team and myself,” he said.

It is a role he didn’t get to play much in his senior days at the Dockers because of the presence of a dominant and senior ruckman in Aaron Sandilands.

The last AFL game Clarke played in 2019 came in round 22 for the Bombers and it was against his old team Fremantle.

“Essendon was a different experience. It was a bit more like what the Subiaco group now. It was younger and developing. I was amazed when I got there in terms of how much talent they still had on their list and I think their current coach Brad Scott is doing a great job of harnessing that talent,” he said. “I thought I still had a little bit to offer. In that year at Essendon my body did struggle to go from WAFL to AFL training loads. When that first year ended I was probably pretty content to finish up.”

Clarke is closing in on 100 WAFL games now and barring injury will get there before the end of the season

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“The first two or three games my body was struggling and I was thinking I would be going well to see the year out. The last six weeks it has been really good,” he said. So much so he wouldn’t rule out going on again next year.

“It will depend on off-field things with the commitment you need in WAFL and we will see how the body goes in the second half of the year.”

“I have enjoyed my career. It has been a wild ride, plenty of ups and downs and injuries – footy in Melbourne. Local footy. WAFL and AFL. It has been good fun. I wouldn’t change it. I am looking to finish this year on a high, potentially next year. We will see how we go.”