Hawk star first Indigenous player to join footy’s most exclusive club
From Mallee Park to Port Adelaide to Hawthorn, Shaun Burgoyne has enjoyed a remarkable journey and on Saturday night he will become just the fifth man to play 400 games.
When Shaun Burgoyne wakes on Saturday ahead of his history-making game, the first thing he will do is ease himself off a pregnancy pillow.
It has been a staple of the Hawthorn champion’s pre-match routine for years, with a decent night’s sleep something that has proven critical to his longevity and winning ways.
Breakfast will consist of three Weet-Bix. Shortly before he departs for his 400th game, which comes against his former club Port Adelaide, he will down a coffee and a honey sandwich.
Burgoyne is the first Indigenous player to reach the 400 mark in VFL/AFL history.
The heart of Burgoyne’s wife Amy, who has been alongside him since they snuck their first kiss at Alberton Oval as 13-year-olds, is bursting with pride. So, too, those of his four kids.
Burgoyne joins an exclusive club consisting of Brent Harvey, Michael Tuck, Kevin Bartlett and Dustin Fletcher on Saturday night. All were remarkable, durable players.
Burgoyne, who gathered with those greats on Friday, is self-deprecating; “I just qualify to carry their bags, to be honest.”
“Those guys are legends of the game. They are all icons of the game. In no way or shape should my name be mentioned with those guys ever,” he said.
It is his way. Burgoyne has always talked himself down, despite a remarkable record.
Make no mistake, he is a legend. A four-time premiership and All Australian player. His legacy is grand, one friends and family say extends beyond the field.
Pauly Vandenbergh, an Indigenous leader who has been a friend of Burgoyne’s for 25 years, knows how important his career has been. Cathy Freeman and Adam Goodes have posted tributes, so too champions from other codes including Cameron Smith and Anthony Mundine.
Vandenbergh is not surprised given the enormity of the moment.
“He is right at the top. For me, he is on Mt Rushmore. To play 400 games, to be the first Aboriginal person to do that, he deserves every accolade,” Vandenbergh said. “It feels like a Barack Obama moment to me. That might sound a bit over the top but … to go from Port Lincoln to Adelaide to Melbourne, it shows young kids that anything is possible.”
The footy is important. Young Indigenous children have been inspired by the deeds of Burgoyne and Buddy Franklin and Adam Goodes and others. But Vandenbergh and Burgoyne are hopeful other young kids from their region might think that they could go on to become doctors or lawyers or coaches in the future too.
“We always talk about that theme, that anything is possible,” he said. “There are no lawyers. There are no doctors from down there. He is a footy player, but this is more than that. He might be the one to light a fire in a young person and make a difference.”
Behind every man ...
Amy was with her grandparents watching her little sister Erin Phillips — the WNBA come AFLW star — playing alongside Burgoyne’s little brother Phil in a game when she met Shaun.
Her father Greg Phillips, who has been a bundle of nerves this week, is a Port Adelaide legend and she became a “footy nuffy” from a young age.
Burgoyne’s dad Peter Burgoyne Sr, who played with Port, worked on the Phillips’ family farm on the Eyre Peninsula and came over to say hi to her grandparents. She and Shaun became thick as thieves and, when he returned to Port Lincoln, they would write letters.
Because of his talent, Burgoyne was soon back in Adelaide playing with the Magpies junior teams and in the same year 10 class as his future wife at Seaton High. He was the boy with the curl. Burgoyne has sported a closely-shaved look for years but, when he lets it grow a little, it is not long until an afro takes hold, she said with a laugh. They loved sitting on the couch sharing bars of chocolate. Now they chase after the kids.
“I was having a conversation with someone this week and I remember saying, ‘I can’t actually remember his first AFL game. It’s so funny’. But I can remember his first Wizard Cup game against Freo. Oh my God,” she said.
“I was eating a packet of chips and remembered thinking, ‘I am going to record his stats on the packet of chips, because if this is the only game he plays, how unreal will that be’. I must not have had too much faith in him.
“I grew up in a very successful family in football terms and was always around the club, or at matches, rain, hail or shine. I am just so, so proud of him.”
She still has the chip packet, not that she can remember where in their house she has hidden it, having planned to surprise him with it one day. So much for that!
Those who are lauding Burgoyne are also full of praise for his wife. The old saying about behind every good man stands an even better woman?
Port Lincoln pride
Burgoyne was wearing the green and gold long before he earned All Australian status after another scintillating season with Port Adelaide in 2006.
The Mallee Park Football Club in Port Lincoln has left an incredible mark on the national competition, so too the entire Eyre Peninsula.
Graham Johncock, Shaun and his brother Peter Burgoyne, Eddie Betts, Daniel Wells, Aaron Davey and Gavin Wanganeen are among those tied to the club or stemming from the region.
Pickett, who is five years older than Burgoyne but has now been retired for 14 seasons, shared a room with his mate whenever travelling with Port Adelaide. A treasured memory was when Shaun was called on as a “little fella” to play alongside brother Peter and Byron Pickett in an under-17 grand final with Mallee Park.
“Shaun was really, really small and I think a couple of the older boys could not believe he was playing,” Pickett said. “He had the hair and the eyebrows and Shaun used to get a bit of stick from his brother Pete and from the older boys. But he could give it too.
“When you are in a footy team, you always have to give a bit and take a bit. You have to have a bit of a laugh, otherwise it would be pretty boring.”
They nicknamed him “Lionel” originally after Lionel Richie. Then it became “Norton” at Port Adelaide, not that Pickett can remember why. The Hawks named him “Silk” for his skills.
“Getting involved in that locker room banter is what makes you want to keep coming back. That is what I really enjoyed,” Burgoyne said.
The West Coast Hostel
For a kid from Port Lincoln, Adelaide must have felt like the biggest city in the world.
Footy may be a religion for Indigenous kids but family is first. It is hard to leave home and a support network is everything.
Vandenbergh, who played with the Canberra Cannons in the NBL, formed part of that tribe.
Now the AFL’s Diversity Talent Manager, he hails from Ceduna at the top of the west coast.
Their forefathers stem from the Koonibba Mission that was established by the Lutheran Church at the turn of the last century.
A few years older, Vandenbergh rented a three-bedroom house in the Adelaide suburb of Mansfield Park he called the “West Coast Hostel” in honour of the Eyre Peninsula.
The Burgoynes were regulars. Pickett too. Chicken and chips was the staple of choice. It became a home away from home.
“He was pretty funny and open, but when other people would come by, he would be quieter and seem quite reserved, but when he got to know them, he would come right out of his shell,” Vandenbergh said
Two decades on and Burgoyne is playing a similar role for younger Indigenous players including Chad Wingard and Jarman Impey, who joined the Hawks from the Power.
Their kids Nixie, Leni, Ky and Percy think of the pair as older siblings. Just the other day Impey raced down to Seaford to pick up Ky from training when his mum was stuck on the other side of town. At the time, Wingard was babysitting the other kids.
“They are family to us,” Amy Burgoyne said.
She is proud Burgoyne is shining a light for other young Indigenous people to follow.
“I don’t know if people truly understand it is for Indigenous kids to move away from their families and have long careers away from home,” she said. “To see him do that, and to see him do that so successfully over such a long period of time, I hope that young kids can see that and think that it is possible for them to come to a big city like Melbourne and do well.”
Speed and selflessness
To relive highlights of a young Burgoyne roving to the brilliant ruckwork of Brendon Lade at the Power is to marvel at the sheer speed he had at Port Adelaide.
Mark Williams was his coach at Port Adelaide and said; “When you needed something big, he would deliver.”
But versatility and selflessness has been a hallmark of the finest of careers, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said.
“He showed resilience in adversity. He has played with ferocity and set a standard to put his body on the line,” he said. “He is like a fine wine and the silkiest of performers on the big stage.”
Burgoyne was vice-captain when he surprisingly requested a trade from Port Adelaide at the end of 2009. It was a testing period as he underwent surgery to help a degenerative knee condition.
Nor was the change easy. The Burgoynes just had their first child and also bought their “home for life” earlier in the year. It was a move away from both their families.
Burgoyne has never been the best trainer. He despised pre-seasons, not that he was alone.
At Port Adelaide, he would tell his teammates that he was on “the Wanganeen program”. It was “quality over quantity”. He had a kindred spirit in Pickett.
“We were the two blokes at the end of the run, behind everyone,” he said. “We were not big fans of the pre-season running and this just shows that you do not have to be the best runner to be able to set a record as good as this.”
That does not mean Burgoyne is not assiduous in looking after himself. And clearly he found a way to succeed, with Clarkson full of praise for his ability to manage the knee complaint.
But there is one sacrifice that has dismayed his wife.They were chocoholics. But six years ago, Burgoyne heard Luke Hodge say he was going to quit chocolate and thought he should shake the habit.
A few weeks later, he went to ask his skipper how he was faring and was shocked when Hodge replied, “Mate, it was only for the weekend.”
Now, whenever the kids bring lollies home from the supermarket, Burgoyne will ask them to bring the bag to him.
He brings it to his nose, sniffs deeply, sighs … and “heads to the kitchen to make himself a fruit salad”.
“We used to buy chocolate and go through it by the block each night. Easter was the best. But now I’m the one on the couch. Covid was not that kind to me,” Amy Burgoyne said
The 400 club
Tuck was the first. Now another Hawk has joined him and he is delighted. So, too, are Kevin Bartlett, Dustin Fletcher and “Boomer” Harvey. It is a club to be celebrated.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said that “to play one AFL game is an achievement, to play 400 is legendary.”
What comes next for Burgoyne? Retirement is an option, though he has been keen to avoid using the “R” word. He has set up a cleaning business employing Indigenous workers.
Burgoyne is keen to increase the number of Indigenous coaches in footy, though whether that is for him remains to be seen. He has the reputation and skill to shine in a media role. But family will always come first. Amy and the kids were always number one and that will not change. For that, Burgoyne is a happy man.