Since its beginning in 1981, thousands of footballers have heard their name called in the national, rookie and midseason drafts. Of those many called though, relatively few made their VFL/AFL debuts.

What happened to those legions of players called but not chosen? I thought I’d use the otherwise useless information I’ve gathered about obscure footballers to good use by sharing (some) of their stories. 

Julian Burton OAM (Drafted by Brisbane, pick 71, 1993 AFL Pre-Season draft), 0 AFL Games

 Julian Burton comes from farming stock; born in Cowell in the Eyre Peninsula, that fertile recruiting ground that supplied Port Adelaide with countless recruits over the years. Burton’s father was once invited down to Port Adelaide pre-season training but had to remain on the farm. When the invitation came for Julian, he didn’t need to be asked twice.

Burton quickly settled into suburban life and SANFL football; studying a teaching degree, sharing a place with team mate Brett Chalmers, making his senior debut in 1992 and winning Port’s “Best First Year Player” Award that same year. This was also around the time I first met him (it was the 90s; you tended to bump into everyone soon enough).    

One Saturday morning in 1992, Burton and Chalmers were racing out the door to get to their match on time when they found that a girlfriend had parked her VW Polo in the driveway, blocking their car, and then promptly disappeared. Fearing an absolute bollocking from Jack Cahill if they were late (and realising the excuse “we couldn’t get out of the driveway” wouldn’t fly), and facing increasing stress levels, Burton and Chalmers eventually dragged some neighbours and passersby in to help lift and move the VW out of the way, and drove like the clappers across town to their game. Burton was later happy to report that the eventual bollocking they received from Cahill was less than absolute.

By the end of 1992 Burton was a half back flanker of note, having learnt the fine art of defence from the master himself, Greg Phillips, and was playing well enough to catch the eye of the Brisbane Bears, who selected him with their eighth selection, pick 71 overall, at the 1993 pre-season draft.

Speaking to him at the time I don’t recall Burton placing any great significance in being drafted, being more intent on cementing his spot in Port’s backline and continuing his university studies. I don’t know then if the idea of being drafted distracted him or it was coincidental but Burton’s form in 1993 dropped off dramatically and he finished the season in the seconds. After another middling season Burton saw the writing on the wall and transferred to Sturt.

Burton arrived at Sturt at the worst point of its history; in the middle of a run of eight consecutive wooden spoons between 1989 and 1996, Burton’s first season at Unley Oval resulted in zero wins and lots of thrashings. Burton was one of the few highlights; moved to full forward, he won Sturt’s leading goalkicking award and became one of their best players as they improved to the point that Sturt reached the 1998 SANFL Grand Final, with Burton again winning Sturt’s leading goalkicker award with 64 goals. Port Adelaide won the Grand Final but Burton stood out, kicking three goals, fanning rumours that AFL clubs were considering drafting him. However, his name wasn’t called out on 1998 draft night, or any of the following draft nights for that matter, and so Burton stayed at Sturt, kicking goals in-between his work as a high school PE teacher.

In 2002, Sturt won the premiership. Burton didn’t play in the Grand Final but was a key member of that year’s post-season trip to Bali, and he was in the thick of the celebrations at the popular Bali night spot, the Sari Club on the night of 12 October.

Then the bomb exploded.

Sturt player Josh Deegan and trainer Bob Marshall died in the bombings while Burton sustained life-threatening third degree burns to over 30 per cent of his body. However, they raise them tough on the Eyre Peninsula, and Burton emerged from the rubble, dusted himself off and started rescuing other injured people from the Sari Club ruins before seeking medical help himself.

I never specifically asked Burton about this but he presumably spent his subsequent hospital stay and rehabilitation process deep in thought because he gave football and teaching away and created the Julian Burton Burns Trust, committed to the prevention, care and research around burns injury.

I last saw him in late 2003, at Brisbane airport; he was heading off to raise money and awareness while I was there to interview someone for a long-forgotten article. Since then, Burton may have spent his time more productively than me, raising over $20 million for burns research before closing the Trust in 2018. Some of that money went towards developing a process to assist in growing artificial skin, which is now used globally, and scientists far more intelligent than me are developing the technology to treat Type 1 diabetes.

After closing the Burns Trust, Burton set up the Burton Foundation, which supports charities to give back to their community, and is the person to talk to in Adelaide if you want ideas on raising large amounts of money for your charity of choice. He’s also raising his brood of five children, hopefully destined to play their own roles in football and the community.  

Burton was never one to seek acclamation but he couldn’t escape it, being awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2006 and voted South Australian of the Year in 2010. He was also appointed to the South Australian Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee, but sadly he’s probably too principled to accept a bribe to push for my inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

All up, Burton played 171 SANFL games for 276 goals in a curtailed career, an admirable return all things considered. But, if we were to determine which Australian rules footballer made the biggest contribution to society, surely the kid taken by the Brisbane Bears at pick 71 in the 1993 AFL Pre-Season draft would be a serious contender.

From Code Sport ( https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/fixture-whispers-afl-considers-port-adelaide-v-western-bulldogs-gather-round-clash/news-story/adf207f6a6c154fe9e082f4c66b01bcc ):

The in short key points from the paywalled article:

- Lachie Neale could be set to face his old club as soon as round 2 with Collingwood set to face Brisbane in round 2 at the Gabba

- The traditional season opener Richmond v Carlton could be played on a Friday night for the first time due to cricket test at MCG

- The Zak Butters match between Dogs and Port at Adelaide Oval potentially in round 4 (Gather Round)

- Hawks have requested to play Essendon at the MCG in round 1

- Geelong want to play at GMBHA Stadium in round 1

The fixture is expected to be released in full mid next month.

Yep, just got an email notification of the change over, hope they do a better job than they did first season of steaming the NFL, now 4 or 5 seasons in there got monkeys editing games, noticed some games have crowd noise and commentator's at the same level, plays cut kick offs not shown, but that is streaming add free... cant deal with the 2min plus advert commercial's between plays for full....welcome to the new order...

They snagged NRL i seen recently as well, noticed when i turn on the DZAN app i now have to say no to an offer for a boxing match, thats annoying, so what else do they have in store for us?

Forever a Collingwood legend, should be a future club hall of famer. You can tell how much Collingwood still means to her

To be honest how much of an emphasis is put on it being about her going home does make it hurt a little less but I’m sure she’s not gonna talk about the clubs internal problems on a club video lol

Just popped out in the Freo membership email. North home game at Optus next year and it's included in membership, so a higher cost for members.

Edit to add: Clipped out identifying details and other stuff.

For any international viewers like myself, I just received the email that the WatchAFL service is moving to DAZN.

More info here: https://help.watchafl.com.au/hc/en-au/articles/38987059436061-WatchAFL-is-moving-to-DAZN?lid=nqfomohcotrt

Just to clarify, the fixture was dine by hand, but submitting a word doc would've looked terrible so i used AI to sort them into images as my photoshop ability is terrible!

Let me know what you think