Australian Football

Amateur footballer Tony ‘Doc’ Clarkson played two league games with Sturt in 1959 - a minor round match, and the first semi final - but then returned to amateur ranks. Over the ensuing four seasons he won two Hone Medals as the best and fairest player in A1, South Australian amateur football’s leading competition, captained his club University, and represented the state’s amateur team. In 1964 he received an ‘SOS’ from Sturt when regular senior ruckman Fred Smith was seriously injured in a road accident, and virtually by accident one of the final major pieces in coach Jack Oatey’s multiple premiership jigsaw was slotted into place.

Clarkson was not only an ever-present for the Blues in 1964, he was one of their best players. Built like a beanpole at 194cm and 81.5kg he combined athleticism with surprising strength, while his strict adherence to Oatey’s favoured checkside ruck strategy minimised the likelihood of serious injury arising out of full on body clashes. Clarkson won Sturt’s best and fairest award in 1965, and again two years later, and was a South Australian interstate representative on half a dozen occasions. He was a member of three successive premiership teams from 1966 to 1968 but, as a medical doctor (hence the nickname), his working career was always of primary importance, and in 1969, after 110 league games, that career took him abroad, effectively ending his involvement in football.

Author - John Devaney