The long-time coach of the famed St Patrick’s College football program in Ballarat has named the best players he has coached at the school

The respected coach of one of the country’s best football nurseries has named the best players he has coached during his remarkable reign. See his teams here.

The famous football breeding ground at St Patrick’s College, Ballarat was at a low point when Howard Clark began his 1st XVIII coaching tenure there in the early 2000s.

A heavy loss to arch rival and next door neighbour Ballarat Clarendon College exposed a shortage of elite footballing talent at the school which had previously produced stars of the game including Brownlow Medallists John James and Brian Gleeson, and more modern-day marvels such as Mick McGuane, Danny Frawley, James McDonald and Drew Petrie.

The football program, much like the college itself at the time, was in need of a refresh.

A new approach was needed.

Clark, a teacher at the school who had once been on Melbourne’s list before cancer struck at a young age, turned to the College’s then principal Dr Peter Casey and Director of Community Development Mark Waddington and said: ‘We have to do something here.’

That something was to embark upon a five-year strategic plan to rebuild the football program at the college, including reinvesting in facilities, harnessing the power of its Old Collegian network, implementing elite coaching practices and making sure their focus was not just on the footballing skills but on the development of the students as a whole.

Essentially, they were seeking to adopt and embrace the school’s motto of ‘raising fine boys to the status of great men’ into their footballing program.

St Patrick's College celebrate their 5th straight Herald Sun Shield win in 2014. Howard Clark is on the right. Picture: Colleen Petch.

Concurrently, the college was also developing a separate Indigenous education program, which was aimed at providing first class education to boys from remote communities scattered throughout the Northern Territory and the Tiwi Islands.

It, too, would deliver unique benefits for the rebuilding of the football program.

“Waddo (Mark Waddington) was an expert in developing a very structured, strategic approach to football success and had great experience first-hand in his previous role at helping develop the program at North Ballarat Football Club,” Clark said.

“Our approach was to embrace the ideology of the school and embed it in the football program.

“We wanted our boys to be proud again to wear the famous green, white and blue jumper and to see additional educational benefits from being involved in the football program.

“We developed a three-year cycle of tours for boys involved in the program, the highlights of which included a playing trip to Ireland every three years to play international rules against schools there, and a similar trip to Darwin and the Tiwi Islands to teach our boys about the amazing culture right on their doorstep.”

The results of the strategic planning were beyond expectations.

From 2010 to 2015, the college won six consecutive Herald Sun Shield premierships.

It was, and remains, an unprecedented run of success.

The names of some of the students playing in those games have since graduated to become stars of the AFL: Crouch, Hopper, McDonald, Duggan.

“It was an incredible period which truly breathed renewed life back in the College and into its

football program,” Clark said.

“More pleasingly though than the quality of the boys efforts on the field, was the quality of the men they became off the field.

“We made sure our program was about improving the whole person and not just the

footballer.”

Clark’s reign as 1st XVIII coach ended in 2018 as ill health forced him to relinquish the reins to former Lake Wendouree coach Gavin Webb, who is also a teacher at the school.

As current Director of Football though, Clark remains active in the background and still has massive involvement in the current generation of emerging stars.

In just the past two years the College has delivered Josh Gibcus, Sam Butler, Kai Lohmann and number one draft pick Aaron Cadman into the AFL system.

From his time coaching so many premierships at St Patrick’s College, Howard Clark was asked to name his greatest ever side.

It proved to be impossible to fit all the great players into just one team, especially with so many established stars of the game involved.

Instead, Clark has listed two teams his 1st XVIII and his 2nd XVIII.

The firsts team is almost predominantly made up of AFL-listed players, some of whom have been elite stars of the game, while the seconds team has a smattering of AFL players along with others who have made their marks in state and local leagues.

Howard Clark’s 2nd XVIII is as follows:

B: Hayden Walters, Oscar McDonald, Bailey Van De Heuvel

HB: Matt Short, Matthew Tyler, Ben Hayes

C: Dom Barry, Joel Cowan, Scott Spriggs

HF: Rory Taggert, Tanner Smith, Matt Austin

F: Jesse Palmer, Dallas Willsmore, Billy Driscoll

Rucks: Tom Downie, Steve Clifton, Matthew Johnston

Inter: Brenton Payne, Scott Carlin, Jordan Alexander, Jordan Johnston

Sub: Josh Chatfield

Clark’s 1st XVIII with his comments on each player who made the final squad is listed below.