In 1998, McLinden signed to play in the NRL for his local team Canberra Raiders. Following an impressive début season, Mark was named NRL Rookie of the Year, and later won the Raiders' player of the year award. He also received representative honours with selection for the Australian Junior Kangaroos squad to play tests against the Junior Kiwis. In 2001 McLinden was selected to play in the City vs Country Origin for Country. During his 7 seasons at the Canberra Raiders, McLinden made 165 appearances, featuring in 5 play-off series.
Super League
McLinden signed for the in November 2004 and was appointed team captain following on from Jim Dymock. During 2005's Super League X, his first in the Super League, Mark showed his versatility by appearing at or. In 2006's Super League XI, with his club now operating as the, Mark was the club's leading Super League try scorer with 14 tries from 17 appearances. His season was, however, disrupted by a persistent back injury which required an operation in late 2006. McLinden had played much of his career at, and with the arrival of Great Britain international Chris Melling at the he played several games of 2007's Super League XII in the halves. 2007's Super League XII saw McLinden return from injury. However, he was replaced as captain by England internationalRob Purdham. McLinden signed a three-year extension to his contract to keep him at Harlequins until the end of the 2009 season. However, in 2008 he suffered from a long debilitating illness which caused him to lose a lot of weight. As a result, he barely featured in Super League and he was released at the end of the year. Before his switch to rugby union he was offered to play for the Ireland national rugby league team at the 2008 World Cup, but declined in favour of Super 14 pre-season training.
He played rugby union for the Queensland Reds. He scored his first Super 14 try in his side's 22-3 win over South Africa'sCheetahs at Suncorp Stadium. Just before the 2009/10 Super 14 season he retired from the game due to medical advice.
Animalates
McLinden is a co-director of Animalates, an exercise program for children aged 4–11, combining Pilates, yoga, aerobics and dance with an animal characters theme.
