Tom Clurey: From country Victoria to Port Adelaide and why he’s right at home at Alberton
Tom Clurey, from a tiny town in country Victoria, has become one of the AFL’s premier defenders. And he feels right home at Port Adelaide after signing a new four-year deal this season.
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After six decades as the cornerpiece of the Invergordon community in country Victoria, Tom Clurey’s old primary school finally closed its doors this year when there were no more enrolments.
The town never had a pub but the general store and a fertiliser shop still exist and the other thing still holding on is the D Grade cricket team which Clurey plays for when he’s home.
He is now well and truly ingrained at Port Adelaide but the tiny farming community 40km from Shepparton where he grew up on the Murray River will always be home.
And it’s also why Adelaide — and Alberton — is the perfect fit for the Power’s star full back who thrives on playing in front of 40,000 people on weekends but then craves the wide open spaces and peace and quiet.
Hours after last week’s win over Sydney, Clurey was in the car heading up the river to get away for 24 hours.
“We had a speedboat growing up, so we’d go to the river to go skiing or camping, so now it’s just good to get out of town and get away from people and traffic,” he said.
So when he hit career-best form this season and both he and the club were happy to commit to a long-term deal, Clurey re-signed with the Power for four more years.
“It suits me, I know Melbourne would be ideal for being closer to family and friends — 2.5 hours to home — but I think the whole city living would do me in over time.
“Where as here it’s only half-an-hour to McLaren Vale or a bit of water in the country.
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“Once we worked out a bit of a deal and there was interest from the club we were happy to get something done.
“And getting a few years on now, that longer term agreement was better for me.”
Clurey’s dad still farms just over 1000 acres at Invergordon and it’s made the 25-year-old also think differently about life after footy.
“Growing up on the farm we always helped dad do things here and there, but it’s not like we sat on the header or the tractor all day long,” Clurey said.
“But I’ve never really known what I’m going to do after footy, and the last three or so years it’s interested me more.
“I’m doing a diploma of agriculture to learn a bit more about things like crop rotations and fertiliser, and I love getting home in the off-season.
“Although I haven’t been able to do a harvest yet because at the start of November I’m always coming back here.”
As for how he lost his front right tooth which leaves a gaping hole when he removes his mouthguard or his plate, that is also a story from home.
“Dad had a hot tub spa a few years before I got drafted and it must have been school holidays and I had a mate stay over because we were marking lambs in the morning,” Clurey said.
“We cranked it up before we went to bed and woke up in the morning, got in the spa and would have been in it for five minutes and I was feeling dizzy so I got out and just fainted.
“I hit my head on an outdoor chair and woke up on the deck and my tooth was shattered, and that was it.
“It got me out of marking lambs for the day.”
Clurey played footy at nearby Katamatite and was one of those kids in the country who would get to the ground at 9am on Saturday morning, stand behind the goals all afternoon and go home when it was dark.
“I’ve got two older brothers and my middle brother Nichol still plays there,” he said.
“That’s where we all played growing up and I was mad footy. I’d play fourths, then play thirds because they used to be short, run the boundary (for the seconds), get my $20 and sit in the rooms and watch the seniors warm up and as a young guy that’s what you aspired to do.”
He ticked that box by playing two senior games before being drafted to the Power with Pick No. 29 in 2012. But things moved slowly early on with only one AFL game in his first two years and Clurey even spent time in the SANFL reserves at Glenelg.
“I played Round 1 in 2014, we won that game by five goals and I’d had a good NAB Cup so I was thinking ‘here we go’, but Bobby (Carlile) came back in and that was it for the year,” Clurey said.
“The first couple of years were a bit slower than I would have liked, there were good settled players like Bobby and Jacko Trengove in front of me, and also I had to learn about playing against men, everything is harder and faster and bigger and I had to get used to the physicality of the game.”
It’s his physicality and contest work that his senior coach now Ken Hinkley has demanded he improve.
“He was always big on getting me more physical and stronger in contests.
“He’s ridden me hard in the competitive and physical side of it, and that’s starting to pay off now I suppose.”
Paying off is an understatement. Champion Data shows of the top 20 players for total one-on-one contests in defence this season, Clurey has lost the least. The majority he either breaks even or he wins.
“I was always a good mark in juniors but had to put on size and strength over the years to compete,” he said.
“It’s a lot different playing full back in TAC Cup to AFL, you’re playing on a kid and then someone who is 110kg.
“So it was getting that strength and also the confidence that I can beat them and as the years go on you get that belief and come to the realisation that ‘righto, instead of being in and out you’re actually playing consistent games and this is where I belong’.”
Clurey now marks the ball strongly, particularly in contested situations, is a natural runner who liked cross country at school, and is a proficient kick on both sides of his body which makes him one of the best defenders in the competition.
But off the field he’s still that country footballer at heart who is a professional but relaxed about his preparation.
“I do everything right and all that but I’m pretty relaxed, I’m not routine-based, there’s no OCD or jumping through walls before a game,” he said.
One of his quirks however is insisting he sleep with a pedestal fan on, and even asks the hotel to arrange one for him when he’s on the road.
“I’ve become what I would say is a bit of a precious sleeper over the years,” he said.
“If there’s any other noises I’m no good, and when I moved over here there was a pedestal fan at my host parents’ place so now I just always have one, even in winter I just face it against the wall.”
Clurey’s continued improvement is reflective of the Power’s defensive unit which has emerged together and remains united on and off the field and Clurey says that’s the case in the wider team.
“The majority of our team is from interstate so you move over here and only have each other,” Clurey said.
“Where as you hear a lot about mates at other clubs in Melbourne they don’t hang around with each other as much because they have school mates where as here if we want to play golf or go fishing you ask the boys here and you do everything together.
“The backs are a tight group but the whole group I’d say is pretty close because you do everything together.”