Luke Burt

Early life

Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Burt attended Whitebridge High School and 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 debut in Rd 1 1999, at the age of 17 against the St. George Illawarra Dragons. He was named the 1999 Parramatta Eels season's rookie of the year. Although a very capable fullback, Burt played most of his football as a wing or centre 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. Burt played on the wing for Parramatta in their 2001 NRL grand final loss to the Newcastle Knights.

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 was particularly impressive with his goalkicking, kicking at just under 90% success rates for the season . His form put him at the top of the NRL's point scoring list for much of the 2007 season. Unfortunately 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) until Round 22 to catch his total of 154 points for the season.

In the middle of the 2009 season, Burt moved to the wing to let Jarryd Hayne move to his preferred fullback position. This move proved to be a masterstroke as Jarryd Hayne collected a number of awards including Dally M player of the year and fullback of the year and lead Parramatta to a Grand Final against the Melbourne Storm. Unfortunately Burt was unsuccessful in his second Grand Final appearance going down to Melbourne. Burt, Cayless and Hindmarsh were the only players to have played a Grand Final for Parramatta in the 2009 team.

In Round 4 of the 2011 season against the North Queensland Cowboys Burt broke Brett Kenny's record of most tries for Parramatta with 111. As of the end of Parramatta's 2011 season, Luke Burt has scored 117 tries for the Eels.

In 2011 Burt was moved back to fullback due to Jarryd Hayne going into the position of 5/8. With South Sydney halfback Chris Sandow joining the Eels in 2012, Eels coach Stephen Kearney has announced his intention to move Hayne back to his preferred fullback spot with Burt moving back onto the wing.

Burt was an unceremonious 11th hour demotion to the NSW Cup for the Round 2 match of 2012 against the New Zealand Warriors.

Burt announced that he would retire at the end of the 2012 NRL season and join the Eel's coaching staff in 2013.

Records and accomplishments

In a game against Canberra in the 2005 NRL season, 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 Parramatta Eels secure their fourth straight 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 Burt 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)

In 2011, playing against the Cowboys at Parramatta Stadium, Burt equalled then passed Brett Kenny's all time try scoring record for Parramatta (110) with 2 tries, the second try coming with 2 minutes remaining on the clock set up a kick from the touchline to win the match Burt converted his record-breaking try to win the match.

Burt's 1,793 points is the 8th most in first grade history, and the second most for Parramatta.