Australian Football

A livewire, will o' the wisp type player, deadly near goals, and pre-eminently capable of the spectacular, Peter Burgoyne's only major problem early in his senior career was a lack of consistency. After playing junior football with St Mary's in Darwin, and gaining All Australian selection after representing the Northern Territory at the National Under Eighteen Championships in 1995, he was invited to join Port Adelaide's under nineteen academy. In 1996 he was a member of Port's SANFL reserves premiership team, having played a number of senior games - some scintillating, some ordinary - earlier in the season. It was a similar story in 1997 when he was a member of Port Adelaide's inaugural AFL squad. After starting the season brilliantly, he lost his way and was dropped. However, he showed commendable persistence by applying himself to the task at hand, and gaining selection once again for the final three games of the season.

Burgoyne's form over the course of the next couple of seasons showed sustained improvement, as did his level of consistency. Having begun his AFL career chiefly as a crumbing forward, feeding off the likes of Warren Tredrea and Scott Cummings, later on he began to be used more across centre or on the ball, where his pace and precise ball delivery made him highly damaging and effective. He was a key member in 2004 of the Power's inaugural AFL premiership-winning team and continued to produce highly effective, occasionally dazzling, football until his retirement at the end of the 2009 season. He played a total of 240 games and kicked 193 goals.

Author - John Devaney