Clark, Matt

BORN SEPTEMBER 2ND 1976 in Vancouver BC Canada, to Australian- and New Zealand-born parents, he moved to Sydney when he was 5. His mother Shayne is the daughter of Phillip Ginsberg Sr who had played hockey in Sydney as a youth, and brother of Phillip Ginsberg Jnr who also played. He was a football player, representing his club, Pittwater High School and his state. When his younger brother Corey got into ice hockey through Phillip Jnr, he decided to give it a go and joined the Warringah Bombers in 1991, at the age of 14.

He was a representative in the U18 Ice Hockey Championships held in Adelaide for the Tange Trophy in October 1993. At 16, after just 2 seasons on the ice, he was chosen to represent Australia. He helped bring home the Fair Play cup for the first time in Australian history when he represented his country in the 10th Asia-Oceania Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Seoul, Korea in 1993. The next year he was back on the team representing Australia in Beijing, China —mere months before he was diagnosed with leukaemia. He also coached other promising players and it was his dying wish for family and friends to find a way to raise money for the crucial charity. The disease ravaged the young athlete within six months.

After he died at 18 in 1995, his old team held memorial games from 1996 to 2001. They played from Castle Hill and Alexandria after the closure of the Narrabeen rink in the late 1990s. When the Warringah Bombers disbanded, the charity shield was packed away, gathering dust since 2001. It was revived in 2016 by the Sydney Ice Dogs as an annual event in the AIHL calendar, the Club honouring him by wearing Bombers jerseys and raising money for the Leukaemia foundation. Mark Gibson, who played ice hockey with him, arranged the match with Chris Blagg, then president of Sydney Ice Dogs and a former captain of the Bombers.

Gibson said: “He was just a good guy. He loved the sport, he loved life. When he was diagnosed, he came home once when he went into remission and just kept going with life.” His mother said she hoped the money raised would help other families. When they hit the ice in 2016, the Dogs wore the old Warringah Bombers jersey with a strip marked “CLARK”. “We’re so humbled the Ice Dogs offered to help and the community at large for remembering,” she said. The event raised over $5,000 for the foundation and his legacy continues to inspire hope.

“(He) was my first skills coach when I took up the sport in ’92 and I coach to this day because of him,” says his friend, Matt Sinclair. “I started coaching skills in 93 and found the passion for passing on and giving back to the game through him. He loved seeing new people come and learn the game. I strive to uphold the values in teaching that he taught me through his passion for the game and life. He was a great friend”.