Shaun Burgoyne is maintaining a positive attitude about his future during a difficult season for Hawthorn
The losses are piling for Hawthorn which has put the spotlight on its ageing stars. Shaun Burgoyne understands fans are asking why he’s still playing. It’s a question the Hawks veteran is happy to answer.
Mark Robinson
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Shaun Burgoyne knew what was being asked.
You don’t get to 383 games without having awareness.
And the question?
At 37, should he keep playing when his Hawks are crumbling?
Burgoyne — who on Saturday joins St Kilda’s Robert Harvey at equal fifth on the all-time games played list — didn’t take offence. In fact, he laughed.
“Yeah, it’s a good question,’’ he said, “and there’s two sides to it.
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“If we were winning, it would probably be Hawthorn has an experienced list and they have the oldest player in the game and he’s helping guiding them through a pandemic with maturity and others teams probably wish they had a bit of Hawthorn.
“Or, we’re losing and we’re slow and old and we’ve got to play the kids, which is what’s happening anyway.
“It’s 100 per cent a fair question.
“When you get people down the pub, not in Melbourne at the moment, but around Australia and you sit around talking about footy, it’s one of the questions people probably ask.
“It’s all good, I don’t take offence to it at all.’’
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The problem with all that, of course, is the Hawks aren’t winning.
They’ve lost three successive matches by more than five goals, their footy is lame and they play a struggling Sydney at the SCG. Another loss and the season is scuttled.
Then how would coach Alastair Clarkson approach the remainder of the season?
Get games into even more youth? Tap Burgoyne and Paul Puopolo? Select the best team possible?
Burgoyne said he trusted the coach.
And we know the coach trusts Burgoyne.
Just remember all those time Clarkson dispatched Burgoyne to the middle when games were being lost and all those times Burgoyne won the clearance, or applied the momentum tackle or made that right decision at the right moment.
Those days are gone. Burgoyne is playing forward. He is a role player.
And no longer is Clarkson breaking the glass in times of emergencies.
Burgoyne insisted he was not feeling vulnerable.
“No, I don’t,” he said.
“I know footy’s coming to an end at some stage. You talked about retiring this year or going on next year … for probably the last six years, I’ve known every year it’s gone on it’s getting closer to the end.
“And getting close to the end could be in one week or could be one year, I don’t know. I’ve never said, ‘I’m going to say retire now’ because to me that’s putting a negative ceiling on me. And it creates negative thoughts.
“I’m very, very realistic with where I’m going with footy. I know it’s coming to an end, maybe this year, maybe next year, maybe this week.”
STAY POSITIVE
A champion’s attitude is defined in good times and bad and that positivity is as much for others that it is for himself.
“The last thing I want to do is finish up an old cranky man,” he said.
“I don’t need the added responsibility of negativity creeping into my thoughts because that can affect the way I go about training, about recovery, about diet, the way you present yourself in team meetings ... I want to be positive and help the young guys, but I firmly know the time is coming to an end.
“As a senior player you’ve got to lead in the right way. You’re being watched and judged, especially by the younger players who see how you act, and you definitely want to leave a lasting impact on those guys.
“Hopefully, without saying anything to them, hopefully they can picture themselves as an older player going about things in a similar way or even a better way.”
Who knows what Clarkson is thinking?
He persuaded Burgoyne to reject a persuasive Gold Coast offer at the end of last season, and in doing so, did not give Burgoyne any promises about this year, nor offer the lure of getting to 400 games, which would require continuing in 2021.
This is Burgoyne’s 20th AFL season. It began in 2001 at Port Adelaide.
He remembers his first game against St Kilda. He had one kick and one mark.
“Those were the days you started on the bench and came on during the second quarter, you came off, you do another five or six minutes in the third and in the last and on Monday morning it was top up running because you didn’t get enough game time.”
His 50th and 100th games were against the Kangaroos — both losses — and he also lost is 150th game against West Coast.
It’s only after he arrived at Hawthorn for the 2010 season did milestone games become winners.
His 300th and 350th games were versus Adelaide at the MCG.
“Two good wins. I’ve got that many footballs at home and memorabilia, they’re all just tucked away,” he said.
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JORDAN’S TEARS
This is not a footy obituary for Burgoyne.
Rather, a reflective piece about a 37-year-old four-time premiership champ living in a hub in Sydney amid a global pandemic, the football itself and his football being a week-to-week proposition.
“The good times go too fast and the bad times linger,’’ Burgoyne said.
“You don’t remember everything but you do have memories of certain things which seem like they happened yesterday.’’
They are legendary mob, the Hawks: Burgoyne, Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli, Brian Lake, Isaac Smith, Jack Gunston and Luke Breust are premiership royalty.
Burgoyne’s standing among that lot cannot be better illustrated than by the night Jordan Lewis cried on AFL360 when he was asked to talk about “Shaun”.
“That caught me off guard,’’ Burgoyne said.
“It was a bit humbling to be honest to hear teammates talk about you and hold you in that regard.
“When you play with people and you have these good, long, hard battles against opposition, you do earn a teammate’s respect. And that translates into off-field and respect as mates and friends and it just builds your bond.
“As mates you don’t sit around and talk about those things, you express your gratitude and appreciation in other ways. Like, I’ll buy you a beer, I’ll come over for dinner.
“But you don’t articulate those things face-to-face. Guys like Jordan and Hodgey who put their bodies on the line week in week out, you hold those memories close to your heart and you keep those friendships for life.”
He, too, has cried over teammates. For Gavin Wanganeen and brother Peter when they retired at Port Adelaide, and for Rioli and Roughead at the Hawks.
“When your teammate stands up in front of the room and it’s only the inner sanctum with the players, you do get emotional,’’ he said.
“Roughy last year was a very emotional ride. You go through their high and lows with careers and their lives and then you move on to the next phase and you see less of each other.
“For most of the guys it was for 10 or 15 years. Look at the Tuck family now, no doubt the players who played with Michael and Shane would be feeling a lot of hurt and sorrow, because they would’ve played a lot of footy with those guys, and when someone is hurting you’re all hurting.”
STILL GOING STRONG
Burgoyne’s plan for as long as he’s playing is to help the coaching staff and kids.
No longer designated go-to man, it’s about teachings.
“I see myself honouring my commitment to the last day of my contract, and to the last game I play,’’ he said.
“My head is rock solid at the moment in terms of things aren’t going too well for us on the field but I genuinely want to help the team, the younger players and the coaching staff the best way going forward.
“We’re working through some problems at the moment in terms of being away from home, trying to win away, adapting to this new life.
“I’m playing a new role, I’m playing forward which I haven’t played since 2002 when I debuted for Port Adelaide.
“It’s definitely different for me, but we’re developing new players. The team is trying to find out what works.
“As a senior player I’m trying to find my way in that and help the younger players and still have the impact. It’s all hard work.
“Whether you’re winning and have a smile on your face or you’re losing and you’ve got an angry face, it’s hard work.”
Harder for a 37-year-old body?
“It’s not harder, it’s always hard. For me, AFL is hard in general. Winning is hard and losing is hard,” he said.
“But I’m not putting a great emphasis at the moment on losing. We’ve got a few jigsaw pieces that we’re trying it put in the right places.
“It’s not working at the moment but it will work at some stage.”
KICK BACK
Burgoyne said he felt a desire to “contribute more”.
“That hunger and fire to do well and to dominate, and not actually just be out there, but to make a meaningful impact, is still there,” he said.
“I want to beat every defender I’m on, I want to hit every target I have … I kicked the ground at the weekend and I think it was the first time I’ve kicked ground.”
Not even that embarrassing moment dented Burgoyne’s confidence. Not a single commentator said it, but it was an old man’s moment, a symbol of decline if you wish.
It happened in the first quarter on the wing against Melbourne. Teammate Josh Morris had lead into the hole just over the man on the mark.
Precision was required and Burgoyne duffed it.
“That burns that I missed that target,’’ he said.
“This week I will have 30 to 40 kicks to practise that kick to make sure that never happens again.”
Burgoyne didn’t see it as a glass half empty moment.
Instead, he did what he’s always done. Review and improve. Hence the practise this week.
“I analyse everything I do. When I handpass, kick or mark the ball, have a set shot, I analyse it,” he said.
“I was embarrassed and jogged down the other end because it was a turnover, and I was analysing what I actually did.
“I bent my left foot too much which made my ball drop too low which made me kick the ground. If it happens this weekend, I will burn my boots.”
As the Hawks stumble along and Burgoyne seems destined to end his career playing his role in the forward line, he hankers for a couple of last swings into the midfield.
He’s tried to let Clarkson know.
“I have given a few wave signals to the box, but nothing is coming back — not yet,” he laughed.
“I have to bide my time and wait for the call.”
He hopes to play every game through the upcoming extravaganza. It won’t be all of them.
But even when you’ve played 383 games, it’s still a case of it being one week at a time.
Originally published as Shaun Burgoyne is maintaining a positive attitude about his future during a difficult season for Hawthorn