AIDAN CLARKE PROFILE
By Brendan Crossan
AIDAN Clarke’s defensive CV is starting to take some shape and he has the potential to be one of Tyrone’s resident corner-backs over the next five or six years, according to former St Enda’s Omagh manager Lenny Harbinson.
The 24-year-old has been one of many players given their chance to shine in 2024 after significant upheaval in Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher’s panel over the past two seasons.
An U20 Ulster champion in 2019 and team-mate of Darragh Canavan, Joe Oguz, Conall Devlin and Tarlach Quinn and Cormac Quinn, Clarke has been quietly efficient in this season’s NFL Division One campaign.
A starter in games against Roscommon, Derry, Galway and Mayo, the Omagh man has been ruled out of this weekend’s glamour clash with Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium with a foot injury.
Up to now, he’s made a serious claim on the number four jersey.
“There’s a great pool of players there and to be put into the starting 15 is a great honour,” said Clarke.
“It’s just about playing and remembering that honour and taking it game by game. I don’t consider myself as a starter.”
Among his man-marking jobs this season have been Galway’s Robbie Finnerty, Derry’s Niall Loughlin and he kept Mayo’s Tommy Conroy scoreless last time out.
He also did a solid job on Donegal sharpshooter Oisin Gallen in the Dr McKenna Cup.
His NFL debut came against Roscommon at the end of January, but he was around the panel last season. He debuted for the Tyrone seniors against Fermanagh as a substitute in last season’s McKenna Cup, won his first Championship start against Westmeath in the All-Ireland group stages and saw some action in their exit to Kerry.
“This is my first proper year as I was in England doing a PGCE last season and I was back and forward,” Clarke said.
“I got a chance from management this year and I have to thank them so much for putting me in. And when you’re thrown in, you’re no longer a new lad – you just have to put your shoulder to the wheel. You’re just Tyrone when you go out there.”
Even when Mayo stole a march on the Red Hands in the first half of last weekend’s Division One tie at Healy Park – Clarke’s home ground – the sticky corner-back was surefooted from start to finish, and says he was able to enjoy the virtuoso displays of attackers Darragh Canavan and Darren McCurry – two men he marks regularly in training.
“Ah, you can still enjoy those boys playing, especially from the full-back line,” Clarke added.
“The further they are away from me the better and I can have a look at them. They’re class talents, just their movement and score-taking. Darragh was doing so much in the first half and then Darren came on in the second half to help.”
Harbinson spent last season with St Enda’s, Omagh and was a big admirer of Clarke’s.
Because of his athleticism and height, Harbinson often tried to push Clarke out the field, but he always seemed to find his way back into the last line of defence.
“Initially, I tried to play him at centre half-back and around midfield to try and get a bit more out of him rather than him doing a negative holding job, which is very important in the modern game, but he always gravitated to being our fire-fighter and doing a marking job,” Harbinson said.
“He’s tallish, he’s athletic and he would have been Omagh’s go-to player. Whenever Omagh were playing, for example, Edendork he was the man you’d put on McCurry.
“I think McCurry only got a point from open play against him, so Aidan is quite sticky and tenacious. And if we were playing Errigal Ciaran, he’d go on Darragh Canavan.”
Clarke himself enjoys the art of man-marking and wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The enjoyment for me is stopping my man,” said Clarke, who never played county minor.
“If you’re put on a great footballer and if you think, ‘If I stop him that’s a big threat down for the team’, you also have to break out and win kick-outs, but my main joy is stopping my man.”
“They’re tough assignments but that’s the beauty of Division One.”
If Harbinson was to technically break down Clarke’s skill set, he is sometimes over-eager to win the first ball over a forward – but says he fully expects him to evolve in the role and hold down one of the corner-back slots.
“Playing at corner-back you need to quickly understand when you can win the battle and when you can’t,” said Harbinson, who led St Gall’s to an All-Ireland Club title in 2010.
“When the ball is coming in, have you the opportunity to get a hand in and win that first battle? If the forward wins the ball, then you’ve got to win the next battle. That comes with experience, when you know when to win the first battle or win the second battle.
“Defenders have got to pick their battles. If you’re marking too tightly, a quality forward can roll you.
“If I was coaching him today, I’d be saying to him: ‘Here’s your opportunity – you’ve got to take it with two hands.’ It’s a steep learning curve and he’s playing against the best corner-forwards in the game. But he is now allocated one of Tyrone’s main markers.
“If he can learn all that stuff quickly against the top forwards he’s already faced, then he’s got a great chance of being on this Tyrone team over the next five or six years.”