Silk’s road from raw, skinny kid to Power force ahead of 350th game: The Shaun Burgoyne story, Part 2
AS Shaun Burgoyne prepares to suit up for his 350th AFL game on Saturday night, Reece Homfray documents his Port Adelaide years and rise from one of the rawest players seen at the club to his role in helping the Power win its first AFL premiership.
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ANDREW Russell was waiting for Shaun Burgoyne when he first walked through the door at Port Adelaide as an 18-year-old draftee in November, 2000.
Russell was the fitness coach at the Power and about to get to work with one of the most talented players he would ever see, but talent wasn’t the issue.
“He was raw, he was really raw, he was one of the rawest players I’ve ever had going into the system,” Russell said.
“I remember he did 10 100s very early days and bent over and vomited everywhere, and I thought ‘what have we got on our hands here?’
“He was quite a strong young man but his ability to run, cover ground and do repeat efforts wasn’t great.
“And I had the discussion with him and I said ‘Shaun, you’ve got a long way to go if you’re going to play AFL footy, physically you are miles off’.
“And he turned around and said to me ‘you haven’t seen me play have you?’”
Russell wasn’t ready for that response and he wasn’t quite ready for what he saw when Burgoyne did play for the Magpies in the SANFL after overcoming his groin injuries.
“I’ve very rarely seen a better game played from a player outside of an AFL game, he was just so dominant and making guys look stupid around him,” Russell recalls.
“As we know the game slows down around him and he could just use his agility and footy smarts to find holes that other players can’t fine.
“He was born to play AFL football and he’s developed it even further himself.”
Silk’s road from Port Lincoln to 350-game AFL legend: The Shaun Burgoyne story, Part 1
Burgoyne did not play an AFL game in his first season at the Power in 2001.
It’s scary to think that had his body been better conditioned when he was drafted, we could well be talking about him overtaking Adam Goodes’ record of 372 games by an indigenous player this weekend and with a bit left in the tank.
But in his first season he managed a couple of trial games and that was it when his groins deserted him.
“I was a long way off playing footy in my first year,” Burgoyne said.
“I had sore groins and developed osteitis pubis and as soon as pre-season finished the fitness staff said ‘you’re done mate, you’re going to spend the year resting up and getting ready for next year’.
“That was pretty devastating news, Port had just taken me with their first pick and there were some high expectations of you.
“To not play the whole year took a bit of getting used to.”
Russell said it wasn’t uncommon for a young, powerful player like Burgoyne to be hampered by groin injuries early on but that period on the sidelines taught him a valuable lesson for the long-term.
“He had groin injuries early on which is often with young guys who are very powerful and strong, their pelvis can’t deal with the power they can produce,” Russell said.
“But I think he learnt a lot about body management very early on, so he had a real respect for the body and recovery and what it takes to be a consistent AFL footballer.”
The other steep learning curve early days came from coach Mark Williams who knew how to push Burgoyne, even if the young player interpreted that as a disliking towards him.
“There was a bit of tough love I suppose, but in the end they realised that I really did love them, but I couldn’t accept that they weren’t going to reach their potential and we were trying to fast track them as quick as we could,” Williams said.
“Shaun came last in all the runs and his pain threshold and understanding his body was really poor. He’d relied on nice skills but that wasn’t going to get him everywhere.”
It’s hard to think this is the same person who is about to play his 350th game this weekend and renowned for being the consummate professional on and off the field, bordering on obsessive when it comes to his preparation, fitness, rehabilitation and physical conditioning.
“It’s wonderful for younger players to hear that because you don’t always start where you finish but if you’re driven and determined, and that’s what he is,” Williams said.
“He doesn’t put up with average and is quite outspoken when it comes to things he believes in, and I love that about him.”
Burgoyne debuted in Round 3, 2002, against St Kilda at what was then Colonial Stadium in Melbourne’s Docklands. He had one disposal, a solitary kick, and the Power won by 83 points.
He started on the bench, didn’t come on until the second quarter, was used sparingly in the back pocket and the ball hardly came down there.
But his breakout game was just around the corner, in Round 6 against the Bulldogs at Footy Park when he kicked five goals.
“And my brother kicked six,” Burgoyne said without even having to think about it.
“I kicked one or two points as well so I’m spewing about that.
“That’s another game I have on tape, I haven’t watched it, but everything seemed to work because I came off the bench.
“We both had a day out and that was the start of it for me because once you get a kick you want to keep playing well and the team was winning more games.”
Finals were just around the corner and in both 2002 and 2003, Burgoyne played in Port Adelaide’s losing preliminary finals to Brisbane and then Collingwood.
“Obviously it was devastating. We’d finished on top and massively under-achieved,” he said.
“It had a devastating affect on a lot of players, we played so well during the year but not in the finals series and get to the grand final.
“There was a lot of soul searching in those games for sure.”
So when that moment rolled around again in 2004 — this time against St Kilda at Footy Park — Port Adelaide didn’t let it slip.
And it was thanks largely to Burgoyne whose actions in the dying seconds didn’t register a stat but will go down as one of the most important moments of his Port Adelaide career.
He was cramping in both calves and there was less than a minute to go but there was no way he was going off the ground.
Port led the Saints by a goal as Brent Guerra went to kick the ball off the ground in a vacant goal square to make scores level when Burgoyne threw himself headfirst at the footy and got a hand on the ball to force it out of bounds.
“It’s one of the moments I’ve got on tape and every now and then I seem to come across it,” Burgoyne said.
“Besides grand finals that was one of the best games I’ve ever played in, it sticks out in my mind.
“Fraser Gehrig kicked his 100th goal in that game and we had a team that was willing to do anything to get over the line and into the grand final.
“I was cramping in both calves at the time but I just didn’t want to go off.
“When the ball went over the back and I had to dive on it, you’re just doing what you have to do.
“I’m just happy to play my role and do what the boys needed me to at that time, and you move on to the next contest and the siren went just after.”
That moment lives clearly in Williams’ memory 14 years on.
“It was like 27-and-a-half minutes into the last quarter and he dives full length to stop Brent Guerra soccering the ball in the goal square and gets us to a grand final,” Williams said.
“He had a major influence.”
As Port Adelaide’s song goes, it was ‘history in the making’ the following weekend when the Power went to the MCG and beat Brisbane to win the club’s first AFL premiership.
Burgoyne played on Jason Akermanis in the grand final and only had 11 touches but kicked a goal in the win.
“I can still picture myself on the field and seeing my teammates’ faces after the game,” he said.
“When I start talking about 2004 it feels like just yesterday.
“It was an unbelievable feeling to finally win after the pressures of 2001, 2002 and 2003.
“To be in Port’s first ever AFL premiership win means so much to me.”
Byron Pickett and Burgoyne roomed together in Melbourne the night before the grand final, just as they did at every away trip during their Power careers together.
They became close friends from their Mallee Park days, Pickett was in Burgoyne’s wedding and they were at the centre of the brotherhood of indigenous players at the Power.
“When I came back from the Kangas I lived with him for a little bit until I got my own place so I got to know him and Amy pretty well,” Pickett said.
“We were pretty relaxed (the night before the grand final) we didn’t talk a lot about the game before any game so not to put too much pressure on ourselves, and some of the boys used to come in our room and have a good laugh.
“In the grand final parade me and him were in the same car, and the funny thing is we were sitting together and while I was sitting down a bird took a dump on my shoulder and I said to ‘him, hey bro that’s meant to be good luck’ and he said ‘yeah you could be right’.”
After they won, Pickett said he would often think about their incredible journey together from Port Lincoln to the holy grail of football.
“And we have a little yarn about it every now and then as you do, the good old times,” Pickett said.
Pickett also said he often thinks about how crazy it is that he retired 11 years ago and Burgoyne is still going strong.
“I am surprised, but his preparation is second to none, he does everything he can to get his body right and that’s one of the big reasons he’s still playing,” Pickett said.
“His decision making, he’s one of the best kicks in the game, and now he’s showing leadership.”
Williams and Burgoyne also grew quite close during their time at Port Adelaide, to the point where Williams made it his mission to have Burgoyne succeed Warren Tredrea as captain in 2008, but failed.
“We were very close friends, I used to babysit his wife Amy and (her sister) Erin who were Greg Phillips’ daughters back in the day so I’ve known them forever,” Williams said.
“Because of Shaun and Peter and their parents, I had a close relationship with them and I loved the idea that the brothers could play together and be successful.
“I went out of my way to try to make him captain at Port Adelaide and I was disappointed that didn’t come through, that it didn’t get the support of the administration at the time.
“And I think I’ve been proven really correct because everything people talk about him (now) — his leadership, his future in regard to his position in the team, in the AFL and in the wider community as well I think he’s a wonderful leader and has got a great journey in front of him.”
Burgoyne says he never got caught up on not captaining Port Adelaide in his own right.
“It’s not something I ever think about to be honest,” he said.
“I was vice-captain and enjoyed that role, and got to captain a few times when Tredders was injured, and I was happy with that. When you play footy if it comes along it comes along but it’s not something I’ve spent too much time worrying about.”
Despite his obvious leadership qualities, even now Burgoyne says he only speaks up if he feels he needs to at Hawthorn.
“Definitely if I see something I will say what I think needs to be said if it’s the right thing,” Burgoyne said.
“I’m always happy to give my opinion and am confident in knowing exactly what I’m talking about, but it’s not something I do often.”
Hawthorn legend Luke Hodge can vouch for that.
“He was always a pretty quiet guy, and when he had something to say he would stand up and say it in a meeting and more often than not he would hit the nail on the head,” Hodge said.
“You need all different types of leaders in a game and his main attribute wasn’t so much the ra ra talk, it was more so ‘put me in this situation and I will do it for you’.”
Burgoyne had five more years at Port Adelaide after the 2004 premiership and in that time he graduated to bona fide midfielder as his footy got better with every season.
Before it was Paddy Ryder to Robbie Gray in the ruck at Port Adelaide, it was Brendon Lade to Shaun Burgoyne.
The two had a sixth-sense of where each other would be and what they were thinking — and they had to because they weren’t getting to stoppages early enough to hatch a plan.
“Because Shauny and I weren’t the fittest we were always the last to get to a stoppage so we’d set up what we were doing and if no one else had any eye contact then they just had to beat their man,” Lade said.
“We had a bit of a system and with Walshy (Phil Walsh) doing the midfield we all had our roles and Shaun’s was to be my hit-to when he was in there.
“He knew how hard I hit it, the speed I hit it, when I was going to hit it, we had a sixth sense there for a while.”
They didn’t have hand signals but opted for saying poker hands out loud.
“Shauny and I were pretty close off the field as well and started playing cards, and we’d have special calls for our favourite hands so our favourite hit would be that, and that evolved into Robbie Gray,” Lade said.
“My favourite hand in poker is jack 10 and he knows my favourite hit is the one over the back, so you’d yell out Jack 10 and no one else would know what’s going on except for him and I.
“So Shauny and I did that, and because we were so close off the field we became so close on it.
“Our partners are both very close, we didn’t mind a bit of a bet, watching sport, country kids stick together and Shauny and I seemed to hit it off and we still do to this day.”
Lade’s earliest memory of Burgoyne is him arriving at the club “very skinny and athletic” but had to learn about gut running.
“He wasn’t a very good runner and I still don’t think he is from all reports but he had speed and agility and that set him apart from a lot of people,” Lade said.
“He started in defence, went to the forwardline and then on ball where he had the most success and that’s probably been why his longevity in the game has been so good, as you get older you might lose one thing but pick up another.”
Burgoyne said the bond with his 2004 premiership teammates would be with them for life, but at the end of the 2009 season, hampered by a knee injury, he made the big decision to leave the club.
Two years earlier the Power had been belted by Geelong in the grand final and there were reports the playing group was fracturing, but Burgoyne said he simply felt it was time for a fresh start at Hawthorn.
“Once I’d spoken to my mum and dad who were living in the city (Adelaide) and said I was going to go, and told family and friends, the rest were difficult but it was a decision I had to make for me and my young family at the time,” Burgoyne said.
He’d played 157 games with Port Adelaide and at the time no one could have predicted he would play another 200 with Hawthorn and be still going nine years later.
“There was certainly some debate about his knees and Hawthorn and Shaun and Andrew Russell should be completely credited for what he’s done,” Williams said.
“To manage him through has been brilliant and every landmark that he’s reached I’ve loved to talk to him and congratulate him, to play 350 games is very unique, there are hardly anyone in that group and he stands right up with the best of them there’s no doubt.
“I am so proud of what he’s done as a person and a footballer. It’s one of the great stories.
“I remember him telling me he was the first person in his age group of his family network to get married, everyone else had a partner but he decided ‘I’m getting married’ and it was a huge step because no one did it but he did.”
No one was doubting Burgoyne’s talent but there were questions over his body when he arrived at Hawthorn on crutches and moved into Jarryd Roughead’s home, but he would soon set about proving them all very wrong.
Tomorrow: Silk #350, the Hawthorn years
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