Two of the finest players to have represented the Port Adelaide Football Club have been inducted as Legends of the AFL Northern Territory Hall of Fame.
Peter Burgoyne and Nathan Buckley received Territory football’s highest honour at a ceremony in Darwin on Saturday night, along with a third Legend in Joel Bowden.
The trio were acknowledged for stellar AFL careers built from their beginnings as outstanding schoolboy and club footballers in the NT.
Burgoyne played for Mallee Park in the Port Lincoln league, before his family moved to Darwin where he was aligned to St Mary’s Football Club and was a dominant teenage star, representing the Territory on multiple occasions.
He was drafted to Port Adelaide in 1996 before playing in the club’s inaugural AFL game the following year. He would go on to wear the Power guernsey in 240 matches - many alongside younger brother Shaun - placing him third on the club’s all-time AFL games tally list.
The highly skilled midfielder is best remembered for his stellar performance in the 2004 grand final, which delivered Port Adelaide its first AFL premiership.
Burgoyne retired from the AFL at the end of 2009 before returning to Darwin to fulfil a lifetime ambition on playing in a St Mary’s premiership, in 2010.
The AFL Northern Territory Hall of Fame induction committee described Burgoyne as “an exceptional talent who embodied all that Port Adelaide and its storied history stands for”.
Buckley has achieved as much as any footballer to have emerged from the Northern Territory, transitioning to an outstanding AFL playing and coaching career via an extraordinary 1992 season at the Port Adelaide Football Club.
A junior football with Nightcliff before joining Southern Districts, he was recruited by Port Adelaide and debuted in 1991.
But it was the following season when he made his mark with the Magpies, playing in an SANFL premiership, winning the Jack Oatey Medal for the best afield in the grand final in addition to earning the Magarey Medal and A.R. McLean Medal as Port Adelaide’s best and fairest.
After 37 games for Port Adelaide, Buckley was drafted by Brisbane in 1993 and made 20 appearances to claim the Rising Star Award in his debut season.
Moving to Collingwood the following year, he would go on to play 260 games with the Magpies in a career that earned him a Brownlow Medal, six club best and fairest awards and selection in seven All Australian teams .
Buckley was described by Northern Territory Hall of Fame selectors as “a supreme Territory talent, blessed not only with god given skill but also a burning desire to be the best”.
Port Adelaide congratulates Burgoyne, Buckley and Bowden for their induction as Legends of the AFL Northern Territory Hall of Fame. It is fitting recognition from a football community so important in their journeys to the top of the game.
Port Adelaide is proud to play an important part in bringing AFL to the Northern Territory.
In 2013, the Power returns to Darwin for the sixth consecutive year, taking on the Western Bulldogs at TIO Stadium in Round 10 at 7.10pm on Saturday 1 June.
Port Adelaide will also visit Central Australia in 2003, taking on the West Coast Eagles in a NAB Cup game at Traeger Park in Alice Springs from 7pm on Saturday 9 March.
