Shannon Hurn

Shannon William Hurn (born 4 September 1987) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). From South Australia, he excelled at both cricket and football at junior level, and at one stage had a rookie contract with the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA). Prior to being drafted by West Coast, Hurn played for Central District in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), playing in premiership sides in 2004 and 2005. At West Coast, he debuted during the 2006 season, and has since played 300 games for the club. Generally playing as a half-back flanker, Hurn has one of the most penetrating kicks in the AFL. He served as West Coast captain for five seasons.

Shannon Hurn
Hurn playing for West Coast in April 2018
Personal information
Full name	Shannon William Hurn
Nickname(s)	Bunga
Date of birth	(1987-09-04) 4 September 1987 (age 35)
Place of birth	Angaston, South Australia
Original team(s)	Central District (SANFL)
Draft	13th overall, 2005 national draft (West Coast)
Height	187 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	95 kg (209 lb)
Position(s)	Defender
Club information
Current club	West Coast
Number	25
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2006–present	West Coast	320 (50)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2022.
Career highlights
West Coast captain: 2015–2019 AFL premiership captain: 2018 West Coast games record holder 2x All-Australian team: 2018, 2019 (vc) AFLPA best captain: 2019 3x Glendinning–Allan Medal: 2017, 2018, 2019 AFL Rising Star nominee: 2007
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Early life

Hurn hails from a sporting family; his father William played 135 games with Central District, and his grandfather Brian was a member of South Australia's 1963-64 Sheffield Shield-winning team.^[1] Hurn was born in Angaston, South Australia in the Barossa Valley and attended Angaston Primary and Nuriootpa High School. Hurn was heavily involved in school and local sporting clubs, allowing him to excel in his favourite sports: cricket and Australian rules football.

Hurn’s more professional career began whilst playing his two favourite sports simultaneously. He took on a rookie contract with SACA (South Australian Cricket Association) in 2004, turning down a second one in 2005 to focus on his football. Hurn played football for Central District, making it to two premierships in 2004 and 2005. In 2005, Hurn was picked to captain the U-18 South Australian side and also picked in the U-18 All-Australian selection in football.

Hurn was picked 13th in the first round in the 2005 draft to West Coast Eagles.

AFL career

Hurn made his debut for West Coast in round 5, 2006 against the Brisbane Lions. After playing 6 games in his debut season he solidified his spot in the team, playing every game in 2007. He was nominated for the 2007 AFL Rising Star for his 19 possession performance in round 11 against Essendon.

Hurn played just six games in 2008 because of injury, in what was a poor year for the Eagles, but he rebounded to play 22 games in 2009, and 15 in 2010.^[2] In 2011, he truly established himself as an elite kick and a highly damaging player off of the half back line. He was crucial to the Eagles' success, as they rebounded from the wooden spoon the previous year to a top-four team the next. Hurn played every game, including the three finals, including 15 disposals and a goal in the nail biting semi-final win over Carlton.

In 2012, Hurn continued his strong form, playing all 24 games, including an 18 disposal and one goal effort in the Elimination Final demolition of North Melbourne. West Coast missed the finals in 2013,^[3] their lack of penetration out of the half-back line noticeable as Hurn played only 12 games.

After Darren Glass retired midway through the 2014 season, Hurn was named acting co-captain of the club for the remainder of the season, along with four other players.^[4]

On 8 December 2014 it was announced that Hurn would become the 10th captain of the West Coast Eagles.^[5]

Captaincy (2015-2019)

Hurn started out his captaincy with a highly successful first season in charge, leading West Coast to a grand final berth in 2015. The Eagles lost to Hawthorn by 46 points, with the Hawks becoming the first club since the Brisbane Lions in 2003 to win three consecutive premierships.

Over the next two years, Hurn continued to provide drive off halfback and through kick-ins. The club continued to reach the finals, but were defeated by the Western Bulldogs in an Elimination Final in 2016, and by Greater Western Sydney in a Semi Final in 2017.

In 2018, Hurn's form improved dramatically; in a change of role in defence, he established himself as one of the best defenders in the comp, earning a maiden All-Australian selection on the halfback flank. This coincided with a remarkable rise for West Coast, with the club expected to fall after losing a substantial amount of experience in the offseason. They made the Grand Final for the first time in three years, facing and defeating Collingwood by five points, with Hurn becoming the third premiership captain in the club's history. He and Mark LeCras were the only players from the Eagles' 2006 playing list to feature in the 2018 Grand Final, although neither he nor LeCras were selected for the 2006 Grand Final.

He continued his strong form into 2019, finishing with a second consecutive All-Australian selection, where he was named as Vice-Captain. He stepped down as captain following the 2019 season, to be replaced by Luke Shuey.^[6]

Statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of the 2022 season^[7]

Legend

G	Goals	K	Kicks	D	Disposals	T	Tackles
B	Behinds	H	Handballs	M	Marks
#	Played in that season's  premiership team

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
2006	West Coast	25	6	1	3	40	20	60	18	6	0.2	0.5	6.7	3.3	10.0	3.0	1.0
2007	West Coast	25	24	11	7	171	158	329	72	53	0.5	0.3	7.1	6.6	13.7	3.0	2.2
2008	West Coast	25	6	1	3	53	17	70	17	10	0.2	0.5	8.8	2.8	11.7	2.8	1.7
2009	West Coast	25	22	4	3	282	159	441	106	24	0.2	0.1	12.8	7.2	20.0	4.8	1.1
2010	West Coast	25	15	4	5	203	31	234	66	30	0.3	0.3	13.5	2.1	15.6	4.4	2.0
2011	West Coast	25	25	5	3	343	109	452	114	44	0.2	0.1	13.7	4.4	18.1	4.6	1.8
2012	West Coast	25	24	12	7	339	76	415	119	57	0.5	0.3	14.1	3.2	17.3	5.0	2.4
2013	West Coast	25	12	1	2	160	27	187	47	26	0.1	0.2	13.3	2.3	15.6	3.9	2.2
2014	West Coast	25	18	4	3	250	83	333	106	45	0.2	0.2	13.9	4.6	18.5	5.9	2.5
2015	West Coast	25	25	3	9	297	114	411	109	42	0.1	0.4	11.9	4.6	16.4	4.4	1.7
2016	West Coast	25	23	3	1	300	113	413	111	40	0.1	0.0	13.0	4.9	18.0	4.8	1.7
2017	West Coast	25	23	0	2	292	165	457	145	44	0.0	0.1	12.7	7.2	19.9	6.3	1.9
2018^#	West Coast	25	25	1	2	430	101	531	196	44	0.0	0.1	17.2	4.0	21.2	7.8	1.8
2019	West Coast	25	21	0	2	386	104	490	154	31	0.0	0.1	18.4	5.0	23.3	7.3	1.5
2020^[a]	West Coast	25	17	0	0	205	66	271	87	26	0.0	0.0	12.1	3.9	15.9	5.1	1.5
2021	West Coast	25	15	0	0	260	67	327	103	24	0.0	0.0	17.3	4.5	21.8	6.9	1.6
2022	West Coast	25	19	0	0	356	80	436	143	33	0.0	0.0	18.7	4.2	23.0	7.5	1.7
Career			320	50	52	4367	1490	5857	1713	579	0.2	0.2	13.7	4.7	18.3	5.4	1.8

Notes

1. The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

1. Argent, Peter (April 2015). "South Australians in the AFL: the definitive list". InDaily. InDaily. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
2. "AFL Tables - Shannon Hurn - Stats - Statistics".
3. . Archived from the original on 18 September 2013.
4. Alex Malcolm (13 June 2014). Up to five could rotate West Coast captaincy – Australian Football League. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
5. Malcolm, Alex. "Hurn gets nod for Eagles". afl.com.au. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
6. "Captain confirmed: The Shuey fits".
7. "Shannon Hurn". AFL Tables. Retrieved 15 October 2018.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shannon Hurn.

• Shannon Hurn's profile on the official website of the West Coast Eagles
• Shannon Hurn's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Shannon Hurn at ESPNcricinfo