Alex Burdon

  • Playing Career

Playing Career

Vital Statistics

Nickname(s)
Bluey
Born
Monday, 31st March, 1879
Died
Monday, 13th December, 1943 (Aged 64 years and 256 days)
Place Of Birth
Glebe, New South Wales, Australia

Known Family Links

Brother
Dick Burdon

Biography

Alex Burdon is the man whose shoulder injury was the fabled beginning of the Rugby League movement in Australia. The story goes that he sought compensation as he was unable to earn an income due to his injury, which was denied him, motivating moves for a professional code to be formed. While the story about Burdon is correct, there had been much animosity among players and the Rugby Union for years prior to this incident, and moves to form a professional Rugby code in Australia had already begun prior to his infamous injury.

Burdon was born in the working class suburb of Glebe in 1879, the second of four children. He became a barber whose business operated on Glebe Point Road, while played first grade Rugby Union for Glebe from 1901-04. In that time he represented Metropolis in 1903, before lining up for New South Wales against Queensland and then the visiting New Zealand side before earning his first Wallabies Test spot later in the year.

He again played in all the major representative sides in 1904, but he stepped down for the 3rd test after injuring his shoulder in Brisbane and which rendered him unable to work for several months afterwards. In 1905, Burdon changed clubs, linking with the struggling Sydney outfit. The club were in a dire situation financially when he arrived, but Burdon worked tirelessly to help the club in every way he could. They were unable to train at their usual gym and could no longer afford to pay their instructor. The 1905 season also saw Sydney struggle with a high injury toll due to playing on the hard grounds, so the club set up its own medical fund in 1906 to help players deal with the cost of their injuries.

On July 22, 1907, Burdon injured his shoulder on a brief tour of the Northern Rivers region en-route to Queensland. As was the way at the time, Burdon had to cover all his own medical expenses and received no income support from the game while he was out injured. It was this incident that was seen to be the catalyst for the birth of Rugby League. However, talks of forming a professional Rugby code had been agreed to some 2 months prior. Burdon’s predicament though was used as the perfect example to prove how vital a professional code was for the players.

Burdon’s injury prevented him from taking part in the first 3 professional Rugby games in Australia, staged in August of 1907, however he was a strong supporter of the code and in January of 1908, he was named the captain of the Glebe club at their first annual meeting, while his brother Dick was named club treasurer. Although he played only four club matches during 1908 and missed every representative match, Burdon was named in the pioneering Kangaroo tour to England, being named as a selector certainly helped his caused. Burdon played in 25 games on the tour, including two Tests, leading Australia as captain in the Third Test. He played just 3 club games in 1909, thanks largely to the Kangaroos late arrival back home, yet still played in all 4 of the Kangaroos games against the Wallabies at the end of the year, scoring 3 tries in the second game.

In 1910 he finally got to represent his state in Rugby League before donning the Kangaroos jumper one last time, both in tour games against the visiting Great Britain side. He finished his Rugby League career having played more games on the Kangaroo tour than he did in 3 years with Glebe. In 1913, Burdon stepped in as a state selector for NSW when Dinny Lutge was ill. He later was appointed to the role proper and also later served as the League’s Vice-President and the Australian team coach, up until he retired in February, 1939. He passed away two weeks before Christmas in 1943, aged 64.

- ANDREW FERGUSON

Playing Career Statistics

All statistics shown in this section are based only on data available in the RLP database, and are not necessarily a complete and/or 100% accurate representation of a player's career. This information should be used as a guide only. If you see a question mark (?), it denotes that the figure is not available.

To view a list of corresponding matches, click on the List button.

Competitions

Competition   App T G   GK % FG Pts W L D Win %  
NRL 18 6 -   - 18 11 7 0 61.11% List
Tour Matches Australia 24 3 -   - 9 7 14 3 29.17% List
Test Series 2 - -   - - 0 1 1 0.00% List
The Ashes 2 - -   - - 0 1 1 0.00% List
Tour Matches Kangaroos 1 2 -   - 6 1 0 0 100.00% List
Tour Matches New South Wales Firsts 1 - -   - - 0 1 0 0.00% List


International

Test Matches - By Team

Team Years App T G   GK % FG Pts W L D Win %  
Australia 1908-09 5 - -   - - 0 3 2 0.00% List


Representative

Australia - By Team

Team Years App T G   GK % FG Pts W L D Win %  
Kangaroos 1909-10 5 5 -   - 15 3 2 0 60.00% List
NSW Firsts 1910 1 - -   - - 0 1 0 0.00% List
Overall1909-1910 6 5 0   0 15 3 3 0 50.00% List


Club Career

NRL/NSWRL - By Year

Team Season App T G   GK % FG Pts W L D Win %  
Glebe NSWRFL 1908 4 1 -   - 3 3 1 0 75.00% List
Glebe NSWRFL 1909 3 3 -   - 9 2 1 0 66.67% List
Glebe NSWRFL 1910 11 2 -   - 6 6 5 0 54.55% List

NRL/NSWRL - By Team

Team Years App T G   GK % FG Pts W L D Win %  
Glebe 1908-10 18 6 -   - 18 11 7 0 61.11% List

Your Say

Want to have your say about this player? Add a comment.

Contributions: Shawn Dollin, Andrew Ferguson, Rugby League Tables, Greg Fiveash, Bill Bates, Michael Borg