No Regrets As Hurn Bails Out Of Bat And Ball To Play Afl

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 14, 2007

Chloe Saltau

SINCE the footy season finished, Shannon Hurn has been shearing sheep on the family farm in the Barossa Valley. He hasn't picked up a cricket bat, which until he was drafted by West Coast two years ago would have been unthinkable around this time of year.

Between the ages of eight and 18, the footy and cricket seasons always collided. "They would keep overlapping and you'd never really have a week off. There was no real pre-season for either," he said.

Hurn is everything cricket wishes it could have - a strong, mature and self-assured batsman who had the game worked out as a teenager and was picked in South Australia's junior cricket squads from the age of 13. Cricket did everything in its power to keep him involved in the game.

But with an SA cricket rookie contract in one hand and the option of being drafted to an AFL club in the other, Hurn opted for the latter.

"I really enjoyed both sports, and before I had the Redbacks rookie contract, I hadn't made up my mind at all," Hurn explained. "I played senior football at Central District (where his father, William, was a SANFL legend) and was eligible for the draft that year and I thought I would have a crack.

". . . I felt the opportunity to play football was right there. I've been lucky enough to play all the games (for West Coast) this year and half a dozen in my first year. I felt cricket was probably three years away, before I would have had a look-in for the Redbacks."

Hurn never felt as if he was at the centre of a tug of war - former Test batsman Darren Lehmann and others in SA encouraged him to keep playing both sports for as long as he could, while recruiting managers from football clubs told him they were interested in him. "They didn't put any pressure on; they were very supportive," Hurn said.

Deep down, though, SA knew it would struggle to keep him, just as it had lost the likes of Simon Goodwin, Matthew Bode and, more recently, Brad Symes to the AFL.

"Shannon had a very mature body and a mature mind for a young fella," said Peter Muggleton, a Redbacks assistant who coached Hurn at under-19 level. "He hit the ball hard, but he'd work his way into an innings. He'd worked out the game. That's why he is a professional footballer, as well - he just understands.

"If you're a gun footballer and you know you're going to get drafted, there's very little cricket can do to stop that happening.

"Players make a good living out of first-class cricket but to get the really good rewards, you have to be one of a lucky 25 blokes around the country who get a Cricket Australia contract. We just encourage them to keep playing both sports for as long as possible and not to give cricket away. I think that's all we can do."

Hurn rarely wonders what might have been if he had made a different decision.

"You have to have a belief that you can play at the highest level. I very well may have been able to, but it would have taken a long time and a lot of hard work," he said.

© 2007 The Sunday Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home