Garth Burkett

Garth Burkett
Personal information
Full name Garth Burkett
Date of birth (1927-03-21)21 March 1927
Place of birth Keswick, South Australia
Date of death 3 August 2012(2012-08-03) (aged 85)
Original team(s) West Colts
Position(s) Centre
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1944 West Adelaide-Glenelg
1945-1954 West Adelaide
Total 92 (11)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1947, 1954 South Australia 4 (?)
1949-50 New South Wales 3 (?)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1954.
Career highlights
  • West Adelaide Best and Fairest 1945, 1946
  • West Adelaide Premiership 1947
  • West Broken Hill Premiership 1949
  • Middleton Medal (BHFL) 1949
  • West Broken Hill Best and Fairest 1949, 1950, 1951
  • New South Wales Vice-Captain 1950 (Brisbane Carnival)
  • Stansbury Premiership 1953
  • Myponga Premiership 1957

Garth "Gar" Burkett (21 March 1927 – 3 August 2012) was a former Australian rules footballer who played for West Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) between 1944 and 1954.[1]

Burkett shifted around a number of clubs over his career. Part-way through the 1944 season with West Colts, he shifted to Kelvinator in the South Australian Amateur Football League. He then joined the West Adelaide-Glenelg combined team for the final two games of the season, remaining with West Adelaide in 1945 and cementing his spot in the league team with back-to-back Best and Fairests (1945-46), and representing South Australia at the 1947 Hobart Carnival.

In 1949, Burkett was appointed Captain-Coach of West Broken Hill in the Broken Hill Football League,[2] a position he held for three seasons, leading them to the premiership in 1949 and winning the Broken Hill League's Middleton Medal the same year.[3] In each of the three seasons, Burkett won the West Broken Hill Best and Fairest,[4] and represented the Broken Hill Football League, and New South Wales on multiple occasions, including the 1950 Brisbane Carnival.[5][6]

In 1952, Burkett returned to South Australia and joined the Stansbury Football Club, who later that season were involved in controversy when they played an unapproved game against a combined Yorke Peninsula Football Association team in Moonta, South Australia, resulting in the club being suspended for the remainder of the Southern Yorke Peninsula Football Association season.[7]

Burkett returned to West Adelaide in 1954 and once again represented South Australia. In 1956, Burkett was appointed Captain-Coach of the Myponga Football Club, leading them to the Southern Football Association premiership in 1957.[6]

  1. ^ Devaney, John. "Gar Burkett". AustralianFootball.com. Full Points Footy's SA Football Companion. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Burkett to coach at Broken Hill". News (Adelaide). 14 December 1948. p. 7. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Burkett - Middleton Trophy Winner". Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill). 19 September 1949. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  4. ^ "Garth Burkett - Wests' Main Trophy Winner". Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill). 6 September 1949. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Garth Burkett". NSW Australian Football History Society. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Garth Burkett – Champion Footballer". NSW Australian Football History Society. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Stansbury Football Club Out For Season". The Pioneer (Yorketown). 15 August 1952. Retrieved 25 September 2019.