Bradley Clyde

Brad Clyde
Personal information
Full name Bradley Clyde
Born 27 January 1970
Playing information
Height 186 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 99 kg (15 st 8 lb)
Position Lock, Second-row
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1988–98 Canberra Raiders 178 38 0 0 156
1999–00 Bulldogs 36 8 0 0 32
2001 Leeds Rhinos 13 1 0 0 4
Total 227 47 0 0 192
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1989–90 NSW City 2 0 0 0 0
1989–94 New South Wales 12 2 0 0 8
1992–94 NSW Country 2 1 0 0 4
1997 New South Wales (SL) 2 0 0 0 0
1989–94 Australia 19 6 0 0 24
1997 Australia (SL) 2 0 0 0 0
Source: NRL Stats & RLP

Bradley Clyde (born 27 January 1970) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s, 90s and 2000s who, at the peak of his playing career was widely acknowledged as the best lock forward in the game. He represented both New South Wales and played for the Australian national side, and played his club football in Australia for the Canberra Raiders and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, and in England for Leeds Rhinos.

As of the 2014 NRL Grand Final, Clyde is the only player to have twice won the Clive Churchill Medal as the best player in the Grand Final.

Club career

He began his football career playing in the local ACT competition for the Belconnen United Sharks and was an Australian Schoolboy Representative in 1985,1986 and 1987. While attending Hawker College, Clyde played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1986 and 1987.[1]

In 1988 Clyde was graded by the Canberra Raiders, winning the club's rookie of the year award, and soon established himself as an indispensable player for the club. He played in three Grand finals (1989, 1991 and 1994) and was the recipient of the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal for the Best and Fairest Player in the Grand Final twice (1989 and 1991) – the only player in history to do so. Along with Brad Mackay (St George in 1993) and Daly Cherry-Evans (Manly in 2013), he is also one of only three players to win the Churchill Medal whilst on a losing Grand Final side.

He was also a member of Canberra's premiership winning sides of 1989 (also winning the club's player of the year award that year). In the 1989 post season he travelled with the Raiders to England for the 1989 World Club Challenge which was lost 30-18 to the 1988–89 Rugby Football League champions Widnes at the famous Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England.

Clyde's 1990 season ended when he tore his Anterior cruciate ligament in a Round 20 match against the Eastern Suburbs Roosters at Henson Park. This caused him to miss Canberra's 18-14 win over the Penrith Panthers in the Grand Final. The injury also cost him what many felt would have been certain selection for the 1990 Kangaroo Tour.

Clyde returned to the field in Round 7 of the 1991 season and his form quickly returned. He went on to play in the Raiders 19-12 loss to Penrith the Grand Final. He then started for Canberra in their 36-12 win over Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1994 Grand Final. At the end of the 1994 NSWRL season, he was selected for the 1994 Kangaroo tour. In a career spanning eleven seasons with the Raiders, Clyde scored 39 tries in a total of 178 games.

Clyde moved from the Raiders to the Bulldogs in 1999, playing with the Belmore (Sydney) based club and scoring 8 tries in 36 games.

English Super League club Leeds Rhinos signed Clyde on a two-year deal starting in 2001.[2] He moved to the club alongside fellow Australians Brett Mullins and Tonie Carroll, finishing his playing career there.

Representative career

He made 12 appearances for New South Wales in State of Origin games between 1989 and 1994 at lock forward. He performed with great distinction at this level with his devastating charges and tireless work ethic. Tall, strong and agile he was a nightmare to defend against and was a key member of the successful Blues sides of the early 1990s. It was during this period that Clyde was considered the number one player in the game.

He represented the Kangaroos in eighteen Tests over five years scoring six tries. He was named Man-of-the Series in 1989 with his debut tour v New Zealand. He vice-captained the team for the Tour of Papua New Guinea in 1991 and was named Man of the Series also. During the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, he helped Australia retain The Ashes and was awarded with the Harry Sunderland Medal for the Player of the Series.[3] At the end of the 1992 season he played at lock in Australia's 10-6 win over Great Britain in the World Cup Final at London's Wembley Stadium. Early in the second half, Clyde was forced from the field with a dislocated shoulder.

After missing the 1993 State of Origin series through injury and not having played since early April, Clyde was selected ahead of NSW lock Brad Mackay for Australia's mid-season test series against New Zealand. Despite his lack of match fitness he was one of Australia's better performed players as Australia won the three game series 2-0 after the first game at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland ended in a 14-all draw thanks to a late field goal by his Canberra team mate Laurie Daley.

Clyde regained his place in the NSW side for the 1994 State of Origin series, won 2-1 by NSW. Although unavailable because of injury for the mid-season test against France at Parramatta Stadium (won 58-0 by the Kangaroos), Clyde's form for the premiership winning Raiders saw him selected to the 1994 Kangaroo Tour. He played in the second row in all four tests on the tour as the Kangaroos retained The Ashes with a 2-1 series win over Great Britain before defeating France with a then world record 74-0 score in the final game of the tour. He received a concussion during the first test loss at Wembley after a high tackle from Great Britain halfback Shaun Edwards which saw the Lions captain sent off. Clyde played 8 games on the tour, scoring 5 tries.

In 1995, Clyde, along with the rest of the Canberra Raiders, signed with the rebel Super League competition (SL). As a result, the Australian Rugby League (ARL) announced that only ARL loyal players would be eligible to play representative football. This saw Clyde, along with Raiders team mates Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart, Brett Mullins, David Furner and Steve Walters overlooked for both the 1995 State of Origin series (won 3-0 by Qld) and the mid-season test series against New Zealand (won 3-0 by Australia). With the 1995 World Cup to be played in England at the end of the season, Clyde, Daley, Stuart, Mullins and Walters, won a court order against the ARL making SL players eligible for representative games. However, despite assurances from the ARL that all players were considered, it came as no surprise when only ARL loyal players made the Kangaroos World Cup squad. As one unnamed ARL official allegedly said, the court decision only forced the ARL to consider Super League players, they were not forced select them. The list of players considered for the squad was never made public by the ARL. Thus it remains unknown how many, if any, SL players were actually considered for World Cup selection.

Although Super League players were welcomed back into Australia's representative football in 1996, injury restricted Clyde to only 3 games for Canberra during the year and he missed selection for NSW. His final year in rep football came in 1997. He played two Super League Tests for Australia in 1997, including the third and deciding match of the Super League Test series against Great Britain along with three Super League Tri-series matches for New South Wales that year.

Bradley Clyde is currently the Football Manager at the Bulldogs Rugby League Club. Within this role he manages the Football Department of the Club consisting of recruitment, operations, development, medical, contractual arrangements plus education and welfare.

Post-playing

Clyde is an inductee into the ACT Sport Hall of Fame. He was recognised by the Australian Government for his contribution to Rugby League by being awarded the Australian Sports Medal.

In 2002 Clyde was named in a 90s Team of the Decade. In 2005 on the 25th anniversary of State of Origin he was named by Rugby League Week as one of NSW's 25 greatest players.

Clyde also made a cameo appearance in the 2006 film, Footy Legends.[4]

In February 2008, Clyde was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.[5]

Also following retirement Clyde served on the NRL judiciary.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "SportingPulse Homepage for Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League". SportingPulse. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  2. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk (2000-07-08). "Rhinos sign Test star Clyde". BBC Sport Online. BBC. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  3. ↑ "ACT Sport Hall of Fame Inductees". actsport.com.au. ACT Sport. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  4. ↑ Maddox, Gary (2007-07-26). "Lights, camera, scrum feed: league hits the big screen". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  5. ↑ "Centenary of Rugby League – The Players". NRL & ARL. 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  6. ↑ Dean Ritchie and Christian Nicolussi (2010-06-04). "Johnathan Thurston let-off backfires on NRL". The Daily Telegraph (Australia: Herald and Weekly Times.). Retrieved 2010-06-03.

External links