As a recent party shows, border breacher Hayden Burbank still has mates in the club he loves

Grand Final border-breacher Hayden Burbank hasn’t been deserted by his Demons’ mates after the scandal that saw him jailed, as a recent party reveals.

Alex Neal-Bullen, Hayden Burbank, Clayton Oliver and Bayley Fritsch Picture: APL Photography

Grand final border-breacher Hayden Burbank marked the 10+ 1 birthday of his Windsor bar, Morris Jones, with some of his beloved Demons among the crowd.

Burbank threw the party for his Morris Jones crew on Thursday with Melbourne players Alex Neal-Bullen, Clayton Oliver and Bayley Fritsch and tennis ace Thanasi Kokkinakis helping him mark the occasion.

It was Burbank’s passion for the Demons that sent his life off the rails after he and mate Mark Babbagebreached WA border restrictions to attend the 2021 grand final in Perth in which Melbourne defeated the Western Bulldogs.

The unwise decision saw them both cool their heels in a WA jail for three months.

Hayden Burbank with Thanasi Kokkinakis and Mitch Osborne. Picture: APL Photography

Burbank is understandably trying to put that period of his life behind him and focus on his bar business. His Melbourne mates haven’t deserted him.

Burbank fashioned the party as a 10+1 celebration as the venue’s 10th birthday party had been delayed by a year because of the Covid lockdown of 2021.

“This year we’re going all out and celebrating 10 + 1 years,” the invitation read.

“It will also be our first big shindig at Morris Jones since you know what little interstate adventure, so it promises to be a big one.”

The ‘you know what’ was a reference to Burbank’s unplanned extended stay in Perth.

Burbank described his experience in jail as like a “game of Survivor” on a recent episode of Sam Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious podcast.

“Every single second of the day all you can think about is ‘I want to get out, I want to get out, I want to get out’,” he told Newman.

“One day is enough in there, a week seems like forever, a month is like a year.

“It’s affected me a little bit, just stuff you see in jail you don’t need to experience that sort of stuff. I never want to step back in a jail ever again.”