Shaun Burgoyne opens up on his exit from Port Adelaide, joining the Hawks and his 400th game
The result didn’t go to script, but everything else about Shaun Burgoyne’s 400th game was just like the man, silky smooth... from the coin toss to getting through the banner.
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For once in Shaun Burgoyne’s fabled 20-season AFL career, the footy scriptwriters got it wrong.
On a night in which the 38-year-old became only the fifth player in VFL-AFL history to reach 400 games, his former side Port Adelaide gatecrashed the party.
In many ways, that may have been predictable given the teams’ respective positions on the ladder, but even with the Power’s 34-point win, the night somehow still belonged to Burgoyne.
Reaching 400 games doesn’t guarantee victories, evidenced by the fact that only two members of the club — Michael Tuck and Brent Harvey — have actually saluted in their respective milestone games.
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But it wasn’t from a lack of trying on the part of the Hawks, or from Burgoyne, who played at half-back most of the night before being shuffled forward in the hope of scoring a goal late.
He didn’t quite manage that, with a snap late skewing to the wrong side of the posts, to the disappointment of all.
An emotional Burgoyne told Channel 7: “It has been a big week and an enjoyable one, it would have been really good to get the victory, but Port Adelaide was far too good.”
He said he felt humbled to join the likes of Harvey, Tuck, Kevin Bartlett and Dustin Fletcher in the 400-club.
As the first Indigenous player to reach 400 VFL-AFL games, he said he hoped he had helped young kids shoot for the stars.
“When you surround yourself with good people and great medical advice and people have great faith in you, it gives you a lot of confidence to chase your dreams and keep playing footy at the highest level,” he said. “I have surrounded myself with those people.”
Fittingly, both teams formed a guard of honour as he came from the field, after he was mobbed by his wife, Amy, and four children — Ky (14), Percy (12), Leni (8) and Nixie (5).
He was chaired from the ground by Hawk teammate Liam Shiels and his former Power teammate Travis Boak.
In an emotional pre-game tribute, Burgoyne’s Indigenous greats Gavin Wanganeen and Syd Jackson paid their respects in the middle of Marvel Stadium.
Then a guard of honour was formed on either side of Hawthorn’s banner to welcome the veteran onto the ground
The link of those lined up was a virtual slideshow of close connections to the AFL great, ranging from premiership teammates at two clubs such as Wanganeen, Byron Pickett, Jarryd Roughead and Isaac Smith, as well as his family and close friends.
As he stepped onto an AFL ground — one of 16 grounds he has played on — Burgoyne embraced his kids and his wife, as smoke and fireworks greeted his arrival.
The Hawks’ banner acknowledged Burgoyne’s Port Adelaide achievements on one side and his Hawthorn laurels on the other.
Unlike Bartlett, who famously stumbled through his 400 banner back in 1983, Burgoyne sent his kids through it first.
He was given the honour of tossing the coin and was presented with a special boomerang memento by Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas.
He started at half-back on young Port forward Mitch Georgiades, who was born just over six months before Burgoyne played his first game with Port Adelaide in 2002.
Luke Breust, who has the most games (213) as a teammate of Burgoyne, nailed the first goal of the match at the four-minute-mark of the opening term.
But it wasn’t long before the force of Port Adelaide took over.
Each and every time Burgoyne took hold of the Sherrin he got a rousing reception in a mark of respect.
Then against the trend of the match, the Hawks fought something in the second half as the crowd urged them on.
But sadly it wasn’t to be.
Silk 400: ‘What have Hawthorn done?’
Chris Pelchen could almost hear the external murmurings of doubt from the moment Shaun Burgoyne awkwardly made his way into his first press conference as a Hawthorn player – on crutches.
It was late 2009 and the Hawks had executed a long-range plan to land the Port Adelaide smooth mover who needed a new challenge after falling out with his old club.
Operation ‘Seeking Silk’ took the best part of 18 months.
The Hawks knew it wasn’t without a modicum of long-term risk, even allowing for how rich the reward might end up being.
Burgoyne hadn’t come cheap. The trade, too, was difficult to engineer.
His 157 games in teal oozed talent, but there were serious concerns over a degenerative knee condition, which he had surgery on only a matter of weeks earlier.
Could his knee stand up to the rigours of an expected three-to-four year stint at Hawthorn?
“He (Burgoyne) came in on crutches (at the press conference) and some people were saying ‘what have they (Hawthorn) done’?,” said Pelchen, the Hawks’ then list manager.
“We were aware of his degenerative knee injury, but we had it all checked out.
“Peter Baquie was the head doctor of Hawthorn at the time. We weren’t going to commit unless there was the approval of our medicos.”
Hawthorn put its boom recruit through a searching medical.
(The medicos) said: ‘We think he has got three years (left in his knee)’,” Pelchen said. “We said: ‘We’re talking about a four-year contract’. Their words back were: “We can’t be sure it would last into a fourth year”.
“It ended up being a four-year deal – three years where the money was guaranteed and a fourth where it wasn’t. There was a contingency for the fourth year, to limit our exposure.
“There was a degree of comfort that we were able to check him out thoroughly. Clearly, they (Port Adelaide) had some reservations around his medical condition.”
Burgoyne is remarkably into his 12th season at Hawthorn – and his 20th AFL season overall.
On Saturday night against his former side, the 38-year-old will become the fifth player in VFL-AFL history to reach 400 games – and the first Indigenous player to achieve this feat.
Pelchen said: “I wouldn’t personally say we were convinced he could play past that third year, or that there wasn’t any doubt, because to be honest, there was.”
“But here we are 12 seasons later, and you shake your head about what he has been able to achieve. It has been nothing short of incredible.”
LEAVING PORT
Hawthorn got wind of Burgoyne’s dissatisfaction at Port Adelaide as far back as early 2008.
That’s hardly a surprise, given he had previously worked with key Hawks figures at the time – coach Alastair Clarkson, high performance manager Andrew Russell, development coach Geoff Morris and Pelchen – at Port Adelaide, combining with them in the Power’s 2004 flag.
Burgoyne said this week two separate knee surgeries in 2009, and a tense atmosphere at Alberton, made him determined to move.
“A lot was happening at Port,” Burgoyne explained. “Obviously, I had the knee injury, my brother (Peter) was retiring, and we were going through a rough trot.
“Sometimes you just need a change of environment.
“I was vice-captain (of Port Adelaide), we (he and wife Amy) had two kids at the time, and we had just bought our dream home in Adelaide.
“But my time there had come to an end.”
He believed reuniting with Clarkson and Russell – in whom Burgoyne had total faith – would rejuvenate him mentally and physically.
“It became public knowledge that there was an increasingly strained relationship between Shaun and the club,” Pelchen said.
“Partly, he was dissatisfied with the club’s treatment of his older brother Peter. Partly, it was around the captaincy issue. He felt his position at the club wasn’t being respected to the level it should have been.”
Mark Williams, Port Adelaide’s coach at the time, had been overruled in his push to make Burgoyne captain in 2009. Dom Cassisi won the role.
Williams told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast: “I thought (Burgoyne) was the best person to be captain of Port Adelaide. I didn’t get supported and it disappointed me.
“We had a leadership (consultancy) group come to the club that gave the players a bit of empowerment in regard to telling people what they should and shouldn’t do.
“I know it affected Shaun greatly.”
Williams felt Burgoyne was “ostracised” when the consultancy group questioned his ability to captain the club.
Burgoyne this week preferred not to go into detail about his Port Adelaide fallout, stressing he remained in communication with former teammates, and was a regular attendee at the 2004 premiership reunion each year.
“I just needed a change to help me get the most out of the rest of my career,” he said.
THE TRADE
Clarkson and then Hawks football manager Mark Evans told Burgoyne in 2009 that they believed he could be a part of multiple flags at Hawthorn.
Incredibly, it turned out to be true.
“In their presentation to me, they said ‘we are going to have sustained success and have a chance of winning multiple flags’,” Burgoyne said.
“They said ‘Come across and be a part of it’.”
It was left to Pelchen and the list management team, along with Burgoyne’s manager Ben Williams, to make the trade happen.
“What was really advantageous was that he already had existing relationships with Clarko, Andrew Russell, Geoff Morris and myself, and he trusted us,” Pelchen said.
“Essentially, we became committed to each other probably about a month out from the trade period.”
But Essendon threatened to “stonewall” the trade. They desperately chased Burgoyne, trying to convince the silky-skilled star they possessed the best arsenal to get a trade done.
“Shaun started to get the wobbles a bit,” Pelchen said. “He rang me the day before the trade went through and said ‘Pelcs, if you can’t get this done, I’m better off going to Essendon, because I don’t want to stay at Port Adelaide’.”
“I said, ‘don’t get the wobbles … Essendon will be looking for any sign of uncertainty.’”
Burgoyne promised to buy Pelchen – a teetotaller – a slab of Diet Coke if he could get the trade finalised.
Hawthorn had to go into mediation with Port Adelaide, and ultimately both clubs worked with Essendon and Geelong on a complex four-club deal to get it done at the eleventh hour.
Burgoyne went to Hawthorn (with Port Adelaide getting two first round picks), 2008 premiership player Mark Williams went to Essendon, and former Bomber Jay Nash was traded to the Power, while a host of other draft picks were also exchanged.
Most players associated with the trade have long since retired. Burgoyne became a Hawk and the rest is history.
A slab of Diet Coke was also on its way to Pelchen.
CLARKO’S RESCUER
Clarkson convinced Burgoyne he needed to change in order to get him to play into his 30’s.
It wasn’t a slight on the way he had gone about it before; it was a sign of what he needed to do to manage his knee.
“Shaun needed to change everything about his body, his preparation and his game,” Clarkson said this week.
“He was playing as a ballistic midfielder at Port Adelaide, one of the best in the competition. But if he was going to continue to play that role, he might have only been able to do that for two more years.
“He had to accept being a pinch hitter with us and play in all positions, which meant he didn’t have the bash and crash, pounding of his body in the middle of the ground.
“It wasn’t like he was unprofessional. But he just had to manage his body, recovery and diet.
“We were able to rebuild him, but it took four or five months to strip him back.
“Andrew Russell and the medical team were more heavily involved than I was.
“We had invested in him, but we needed to invest in his body, too.”
Burgoyne’s first game in brown and gold didn’t come until Round 8, 2010, when he had 20 disposals in the Hawks’ three-point win over Richmond, snapping a six-game losing streak.
It was the game that Clarkson believes helped to save his coaching career. He had been under intense pressure before a Sam Mitchell rundown tackle on Shane Tuck saved the game and potentially the coach’s job.
Burgoyne credits Russell for helping him rebuild his body.
“He (Russell) was able to lay out a clear path … I wasn’t overweight or anything, but because I had had knee surgery, I needed less weight on my body. It was like ‘let’s lose four or five kilos but make you stronger’.
“To have the backing of the coach and the senior players from the start was great. They said: ‘Just take your time, we want you fit and we need you ready to go’.”
Burgoyne arrived at Hawthorn at 94 kilos. In his 12 seasons since he has sat on about 89-90 kilos, making him more nimble and putting less stress on his knees.
Clarkson said: “He knew if he had a chance to play footy for longer, it was going to be with someone like Andrew Russell and myself, because we knew his body, his personality and his character. We knew we could get the best out of him.
“But he had to suppress his ego and play a bit role and allow all the accolades to go to (Luke) Hodge, (Sam) Mitchell, (Jordan) Lewis, (Buddy) Franklin and (Jarryd) Roughead.
“He was our pinch-hitter; he was our rescuer.”
Burgoyne swiftly became Clarkson’s ‘In Case Of Emergency, Break This Glass’ player, who time and again rescued the Hawks when they were in a pickle.
He was instrumental in the club’s threepeat of premierships from 2013-2015, and has gone on to become one of the Hawks’ greatest players.
“I reckon ruck is the only spot we haven’t played him at Hawthorn,” Clarkson said. “He has played everywhere. He doesn’t like the wing, as there is too much running on the wing.”
SILK STORIES
Burgoyne started a book – Silk – with respected sports writer Martin Blake in 2016.
Blake recalls: “I still remember this clearly, he said to me: ‘This will probably be my last year.’ And every year he has just kept backing up and backing up.
“His story has definitely grown over those years. I think he is one of the best impact players we have ever seen.
“If you look at the prelim finals or the big moments in big games, he will just step up for you.
“I just parked it (the book) at the end of each year when he signed a new deal. But now he is saying this is going to be his last year, we are going to get to finish it.
“I can say Shaun is every bit the good bloke everyone says he is.”
The book will come out later this year as a celebration of his extraordinary career.
Clarkson joked that for someone seemingly so self assured on the field, Burgoyne was always edgy around contract time.
“He was always anxious and he would go home to Amy (his wife) and say ‘They don’t want me next year’, and Amy would say ‘Have you spoken to Clarko?’,” Clarkson said.
“He would come in and say ‘what’s happening for next year?’ I would say, ‘No, you are going around again’.
“I think he has probably had about eight or nine rolling one-year contracts.”
FUTURE
Burgoyne has been front and centre in the media this week as he prepares to join Brent Harvey, Michael Tuck, Kevin Bartlett and Dustin Fletcher in the 400-club.
“It’s a lot of attention for one person,” he said. “It’s something I’m not used to. But I know my wife and kids are enjoying it.”
Amy revealed on SEN this week she met Shaun at 13, and their first kiss was sealed at Alberton Oval.
She is the daughter of former Port Adelaide and Collingwood star Greg Phillips, and the sister of AFLW superstar Erin.
They have four kids – Ky (14), Percy (12), Leni (8) and Nixie (5) – who follow their dad’s career with a passion.
Burgoyne is looking to life beyond football, having helped to set up ACS Indigenous Property Services, providing the Indigenous community with employment opportunities.
He hasn’t decided if he will go into coaching, but isn’t yet prepared to close the door.
“Whatever happens in the future is really his choice,” Clarkson said. “I know he is really passionate about being a role model for the Indigenous community.
“The best way he has been able to do that is to play the game and show what you can achieve if you want to dedicate yourself to it. That’s why he has lasted as long as he has.”
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