Leader News |
SIMON Clarke says making history alongside his greatest mates made leaving Sunbury all too hard.
Clarke, the 30-year-old damaging swingman who starred in Sunbury's successful Ballarat Football League finals campaign last year, made the difficult decision to leave Clarke Oval in the wake of the Lions premiership to return to his first senior club, St Bernard's.
Clarke won a flag at the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) Snowdogs in 2002 a decade to the day prior to Sunbury's mauling of Redan last year and he always planned to return to the yellow and blue stripes of the Essendon club.
Clarke, after much soul searching, told Sunbury he was returning to the VAFA and sent shockwaves through the Ballarat FL as the Lions lost a gem.
It was around the time Jay Cheep was contemplating his own future, the Sunbury gun hot in demand as Essendon District Football League clubs grappled for his signature, but Cheep further instilled himself as a favourite son at Clarke Oval when he chose to stay in royal blue and white.
Clarke, by this stage the only member of Sunbury's flag-winning 22 not to recommit, had commenced his tenure back at St Bernard's.
Coach Chris Tankard, meanwhile, was dancing down the street while licking his lips at the prospect of VFL gun Adam Bentick spearing the pill to a waiting Clarke at centre half-forward.
"To have him and Bentick through the midfield and half-forward swap on ball means we will have big bodies on the ball all the time," he said at the time.
But it didn't take long for Clarke to realise his mistake, and Tankard was not about to stand in his way.
"I had to return the Christmas present," Tankard quipped.
"I think he missed a bit of mum's cooking after training, too. We could see his heart wasn't really in it and he wasn't 100 per cent into what we were doing. We didn't want to keep him if he wasn't 100 per cent. He's too good a player to not be at the top of his game."
Clarke, a teacher by trade, knew he belonged at Clarke Oval.
"I just came to the realisation that I was in a good patch with a really good bunch of mates that I grew up with," he said.
"I missed playing with them.
"When I really sat down and thought about it I realised I was probably a bit hasty in my decision, which probably came from pressure from both sides.
"I might have rushed into it a little bit. I almost just wanted that part of it to be over and get on with footy."
