Late-blooming Chris Burgess proves a recruiting win for Adelaide Crows, set to make club debut vs. Gold Coast
Chris Burgess has long been seen as a late bloomer. Adelaide will hope the 28-year-old’s trend of getting better with age continues when he deputises for Taylor Walker on his Crows debut.
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Throughout his career, Chris Burgess has been the definition of a late bloomer.
Adelaide will be hoping that trend continues as the 28-year-old prepares to make his debut for the team he grew up watching at Footy Park.
The Crows confirmed on Thursday that Burgess would make his debut for the club, after his off-season move back to South Australia.
It will come against old side Gold Coast.
And it will continue an unconventional and quite remarkable AFL story for Burgess.
He was cut by Woodville-West Torrens from the club’s under-age squads at 14 because he was too small.
He then grew 20cm in the final year-and-a-half of his schooling and at aged 18 was invited to a Come ‘n’ Try session at West Adelaide.
Burgess spent his first year at the Bloods in 2015 playing SANFL reserves and featured in six games for Flinders Park in division three of the amateurs.
Three years later he was selected by the Suns as a mature-age recruit and made his AFL debut in Round 1 of the 2019 season.
He played 14 games in his debut campaign, didn’t taste a single minute of AFL action in 2020 and then fought his way back into the Suns side in 2021 to make 19 appearances.
While he won the VFL goalkicking in each of the last two seasons, Burgess has managed just three AFL games for the Suns.
Adelaide has been precise in who it has targeted to improve its list in recent years, with Jordan Dawson and Izak Rankine two of the biggest recruits.
Three games in two years doesn’t exactly put the newest Crow in the “targeted” category, but Burgess’ ability to play forward and back – and even in the ruck – at 194cm does help the Crows.
“He is a worker, he has probably been unlucky to not have an opportunity at his previous club for different reasons,” Crows coach Matthew Nicks said.
“But they are a strong footy club the Gold Coast from a talent point of view, they have really talented forwards so it has been hard for him to break in there.
“He has led the goalkicking in the VFL (for the last two years) so he has played some really high level footy.
“We felt there might be an opportunity at the club here.”
Had the Crows been at full-strength, it would have been likely that Burgess would not be making his debut against his former side in Round 1.
But Riley Thilthorpe is out for 12-14 weeks after surgery on a torn meniscus and Burgess’ ability to pinch hit into the ruck will now become vital for the Crows to assist Reilly O’Brien.
And with Taylor Walker to miss the season opener with back spasms, Burgess will make his Crows debut as the elder statesman of an Adelaide forward line also featuring Darcy Fogarty and Lachlan Gollant.
Originally published as Late-blooming Chris Burgess proves a recruiting win for Adelaide Crows, set to make club debut vs. Gold Coast
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