Oscar Clavarino

Oscar Clavarino (born 22 May 1999) is an Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Clavarino, a key defender, is noted for his intercept marking ability.

In 2015, Clavarino represented Vic Country at the AFL under-16 national championships, held on the Gold Coast in July.

He appeared at the 2016 under-18 national championships as a bottom-ager.

In August 2016, Clavarino was named among thirty prospective draftees for the following year in the AFL Academy's level-two intake.

In December that year, he trained with Melbourne for two weeks as part of an Academy program to give prospective draftees insight into life at an AFL club.

Drafted as a second-round pick in 2017, Clavarino's AFL career was curtailed by slow development, ankle and hamstring injuries, and interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

He spent most of his time at St Kilda playing for their second-tier Victorian Football League (VFL) affiliate, Sandringham.

In 2021, Clavarino finally made his AFL debut, 1283 days after he had been drafted.

St Kilda delisted him at the season's conclusion; he continued his football with South Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).

Clavarino grew up in Melbourne's southeast.

A Hawthorn supporter, he aspired to playing AFL "since he [could] remember".

He played his junior football with Berwick, beginning as a tall utility comfortable playing forward or in defence.

When Clavarino was nine years old, he played in an Auskick match on the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Clavarino was educated at Haileybury, a member of the Associated Public Schools (APS) group, and was in the leadership group for the school's football team.

He gained two mentors at Haileybury: Josh Battle, a good friend who was drafted by St Kilda a year before Clavarino and gave him advice on the time and diet management required of professional footballers; and Matthew Lloyd, the former Essendon forward, who was Clavarino's assistant coach from the age of 16.

Clavarino played in the TAC Cup for the Dandenong Stingrays.

In 2017, his draft year, he captained the team, averaging 16 disposals and six marks per game.

On his return in 2017, he co-captained Vic Country alongside James Worpel and made the All-Australian side.

Ahead of the 2017 national draft, it was unclear when Clavarino would be selected; media assessments placed him between a late first-round pick to an early third-round pick.

He was considered the best intercept marker in his cohort and noted for his leadership.

Clavarino was drafted by St Kilda with pick 35 in the 2017 national draft.

Clavarino was St Kilda's third selection; the club had already taken Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield with picks 7 and 8 and went on to choose Ben Paton with pick 46.

St Kilda sent Clavarino's new teammate David Armitage around to his home to present him with a club guernsey.

Clavarino spent his early seasons with St Kilda developing his strength to AFL standards.

Describing himself as a "tall and skinny" player in his reflections, Clavarino did not expect to play at AFL level for a few seasons.

He named several mentors at St Kilda: among the staff, Aaron Hamill, the VFL coach; and Steve Forcone, the strength and conditioning coach.

Among the players, he named defensive veterans Nathan Brown and Dylan Roberton.

In February 2019, Clavarino injured his ankle in a marking contest during an intra-club practice match.

The injury sidelined him for eight weeks.

This was a serious setback – Clavarino had been anticipated to make his AFL debut in the opening round of the season, since Brown was suspended and fellow key defender Jake Carlisle was recovering from an injured back.

Clavarino ended up playing 14 VFL matches with Sandringham for the year, but did not play an AFL game.

He signed a one-year contract extension in October; Simon Lethlean, the club's general manager of football, acknowledged Clavarino's position as a "bigger-bodied defender" meant he would take some time to develop as a player.

Clavarino's development was further interrupted in 2020 by the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.

The AFL season was suspended for more than two months and only resumed under strict quarantine arrangements – the VFL season was cancelled altogether.

In the absence of reserves football, Clavarino pressed his case for AFL selection through the practice games arranged against other clubs.

These scratch matches were played under relaxed rules and reduced numbers; on one occasion, Clavarino and some teammates played for Essendon to balance their match.

The pandemic was not the only interruption to Clavarino's progress; he also suffered a hamstring injury in June, which kept him out of football for several weeks.

In November, St Kilda moved Clavarino and his teammate Darragh Joyce to its rookie list under a new AFL provision permitting clubs to transfer two senior players in this way without waiting for the rookie draft.

In May 2021, Clavarino finally played his first AFL match, 1283 days after being drafted; a twenty-point victory over North Melbourne in round 11.