Luke Burt

Luke Burt

Personal information
Full name	Luke Kevin Burt
Born	(1981-06-06) 6 June 1981 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	88 kg (13 st 12 lb)
Playing information
Position	Fullback, Wing, Centre
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1999– Parramatta Eels 237 115 575 5 1611 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 2010 Country Origin 1 1 6 0 16
Source: Rugby League Project

Luke Kevin Burt (born 6 June 1981 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is an Australian professional rugby league player for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. He primarily plays at wing, although he has had successful stints at fullback.

Early life

While attending Whitebridge High School, Burt played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1998.

Burt went on to play junior football for the Valentine Red Devils before being called up to the Eels in 1999.

NRL career

Burt made his first-grade debuting in 1998, at the age of 17. Although a very capable fullback, Burt played most of his rugby as a wing or center since the Eels backs of the era included Clinton Schifcofske, Brett Hodgson and Wade McKinnon, all of whom have earned at least one representative jumper at fullback. As an outside back, he provided many tries down either the left or right flank for Parramatta. With the departure of McKinnon at the end of 2006 to the Warriors, Burt was installed as the regular fullback.

In 2007 Burt continued his great form at fullback and has been particularly impressive with his goalkicking, kicking at just under 90% success rates for the season. His form has put him at the top of the NRL's point scoring list for much of the 2007 season. Burt dislocated his kneecap against the Newcastle Knights in Round 17 and missed the remainder of the NRL season. At the time of his injury, Burt was so far ahead on the point scoring list that it took Hazem El Masri (second highest point scorer after Burt) five rounds to catch his total of 154 points for the season.

In round 4 2011 against the North Queensland Cowboys Burt broke Brett Kenny's record of most tries for parramatta with 111

In the middle of the 2009 season, Burt moved to the wing to let Jarryd Hayne move to his preferred fullback position.

Burt will be moved back to fullback due to Jarryd Hayne going into the position of 5/8.

Records and accomplishments

In a game against Canberra in 2005, Burt scored 28 points (3 tries and 8 goals.) That point total matched his previous best and tied the club record for most points in a match.

Debuting at the age of 17 years and 9 months, Burt became the youngest player to play first-grade for the Eels.

In round 22 of the regular 2009 NRL season Burt scored a 24 point haul which helped the Pirtek Parramatta Eels secure their fourth straight Telstra Premiership victory, defeating the Newcastle Knights 40–8 at Parramatta Stadium in front of a crowd of 17,669. Luke bagged a double including one disallowed try along with scoring 8 goals from 8 attempts which concluded his best performance of the year.

Burt scored his 100th first grade try for the Eels in the 2009 Preliminary Final against the Bulldogs (Only the second ever Parramatta player to do so behind Brett Kenny).

After some great form in early 2010 Luke was selected to play for the Country Origin side where he scored a try and kicked 6 goals from 6 attempts. In the same season, he became the third player to score 100 tries and 500 goals (after Ryan Girdler and Hazem El Masri)

External links

• Parramatta Eels player profile