233. Darren Winter

Player Inductee

Clarence/Burnie Dockers, Defender, 1989-2006

Recruited from the Geelong district by Clarence in the early 1990s, Darren Winter was destined to become one of the most recognisable players in the game and for opposition supporters, the focus of their ire. No one could deny Winter’s ability to turn games by taking on the toughest players and greatest playmakers that the Tasmanian statewide league could throw up. His battles in the mid-1990s with the likes of ex-AFL tough men David Rhys-Jones, Rod Grinter and Andy Goodwin are the stuff of legend. A multiple premiership player with the Clarence Roos, Winter was influential in the club’s rise towards its greatest era, giving a best on ground performance in the 1993 state grand final against North Launceston. Winter moved to the Burnie Dockers to commence a coaching career that bore fruit upon his return to Clarence in the 2000s, when he led them to further premiership success in the Southern Football League.