VFL clubs in chase for former Essendon midfielder Dylan Clarke
Frankston is among the clubs having a dash at former Bomber Dylan Clarke as he weighs up his next move in football.
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Delisted Don Dylan Clarke is heading to the VFL, but to which club remains unclear.
A string of clubs is pursuing the midfielder, including Frankston, where his former Essendon teammates Josh Begley and Trent Mynott are lining up in 2022.
Clarke lives in Port Melbourne and the Borough have sounded him out, as has Williamstown.
Clarke, 22, was an AFL Rising Star nominee in 2019 and Essendon’s Lindsay Griffiths Rising Star recipient in the same year.
But he struggled to establish permanence in the senior team and was delisted at the end of last season after playing 24 senior matches.
He managed four games last year.
The Bombers invited Clarke to train over summer with an eye to securing him in the pre-season supplemental selection period. Last week they announced, however, that he had been overlooked.
Clarke had also been delisted at the end on 2020 but the Bombers made him a rookie for 2021.
Drafted from the Eastern Ranges, Clarke has regularly dominated for Essendon in the VFL in the past few seasons.
In three matches last year he had 27, 26 and 31 possessions.
Frankston has vacancies on its list after Nathan Freeman signed with Adelaide Crows in the SANFL and Anthony Brolic decided to return to local football.
The Dolphins have already signed four players with senior AFL experience, locking in Taylin Duman (Fremantle), Will Walker (North Melbourne), Ryley Stoddart (Sydney) and Tom Murphy (North Melbourne), as well as Mynott from Box Hill Hawks and ex-Melbourne Category B rookie ruckman Austin Bradke.
Port Melbourne has also yet to close its books, with a number of players still trying for a position on the list, including Darcy Fritsch, the brother of premiership Demon Bayley.
Meanwhile, Collingwood VFL has handed a contract to Southern league key forward Matt Wetering.
Wetering won the Division 2 league best and fairest in 2019 and 2021 with Springvale Districts, whom he joined from Parkdale Vultures.
Last season he booted 64 goals from 10 matches.
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