Barrie Burnett to break Yallourn-Yallourn North senior games record
Lockdown has put a massive milestone on hold for this Gippsland footballer, who has coached his club to a drought-breaking flag.
The latest lockdowns have put a temporary halt on a Yallourn-Yallourn North legend setting a football record for his club.
Barrie Burnett, 37, has played all his football with the Bombers, starting in the under-11s as a six-year-old and making his senior debut at 18.
When country football is able to resume, Yallourn-Yallourn North’s premiership-winning playing coach will run out for his 320th senior game, the most by any player in the club’s history.
Burnett became the Bombers’ coach in 2018, taking the team to a preliminary final in his first year. He said the role goes beyond football.
“You are not just a senior coach anymore, you’re pretty much everything,” he said.
“You’ve got to deal with all these young people and try to help them along the journey and probably the most rewarding part is seeing them not just succeed playing football, but seeing their successes off the field as well … seeing these young boys become men.”
Yallourn-Yallourn North’s premiership win two years ago in the Mid Gippsland league was the club’s first since 1996. For Burnett, it was “the pinnacle”.
“It is hard to put into words. Because I have been around for so long, it wasn’t so much for myself being a relief, it was for all the people who put in all the work and who have been there forever as well, and just seeing the community and the people at the club so happy and relieved,” he said.
Burnett’s most serious injury across his career was a dislocated elbow, which forced him to sit out about two months, so a year-long lay-off last year due to coronavirus restrictions was “hard”.
“It was about just trying to keep the positivity with all the players, and keeping them engaged and about their wellbeing,” he said.
“We’ve got through it, and hopefully we don’t have to go too long though this little period at the moment.”
Last year Yallourn-Yallourn North transferred from the Mid Gippsland league to the North Gippsland league, making it the first time Burnett had played in a different competition.
Burnett sits equal on senior games for the Bombers with Wayne Paulet. Both are league best-and-fairest winners in the Mid Gippsland league, Paulet in 1987 and Burnett in 2007.
“I grew up watching him, and then played senior football with him, and now he is an assistant coach for me,” Burnett said.
“It will be sort of exciting, but records, they don’t at the moment mean as much to me as they will probably at the end of my career.”
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