Nathan Burke (born 6 February 1970) is a former Australian rules footballer and former coach of the team in the AFL Women's competition (AFLW). A tough rover, Burke is considered one of the most courageous footballers to play for the St Kilda Football Club. Burke set the club record for most games—323—at his retirement, which remained the benchmark until broken by former teammate Robert Harvey in round 7, 2006. Dozens of concussions during Burke's career led to him using a helmet. In 2021, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

VFL/AFL playing career

Burke was co-captain in St Kilda's 1996 AFL Ansett Australia Cup winning side – the club's first AFL Cup win. He started his football playing career with the Pines Football Club. His professional career spanned 1987–2003 despite missing most of 2002 with a knee injury, with Burke deciding to retire late in the season, in the Round 19 clash with Richmond, which the Saints won by 80 points. It was also notable for the fact that the coaching panel of Richmond that day included fellow St Kilda teammates Danny Frawley and Stewart Loewe, who stayed on the ground in honour of Burke following his parade lap (with Alex Lloyd's "Amazing" played at the ground).

Post-playing career

Burke had been a director of the St Kilda Football Club from 2008 to 2015. He had joined the board with fellow player Andrew Thompson. He is also a regular expert commentator on ABC Grandstand football coverage, an AFL analyst for Fox Sports News, and co hosts the Sunday Session on ABC radio. He is a feature article writer for Inside Football magazine also. This work complements his corporate guest speaking and school programs. In 2015 he rejoined the AFL Match Review Panel, a role he held prior to joining the Board at St Kilda.

Coaching career

In September 2019, Burke was due to become assistant coach in the AFL Women's with St Kilda, but was instead appointed by the Western Bulldogs to their head coach role from the 2020 AFL Women's season.

Personal life

Burke's daughter, Alice, plays for in the AFL Women's competition, and made her playing debut against the, whom he coaches. Burke's uncle Nick Bloom also played for St Kilda.

Playing statistics

! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1987 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1988 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1989 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1990 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1991 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1992 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1993 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1994 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1995 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1996 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1997 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1998 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1999 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2000 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2001 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2002 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2003 ! colspan=3| Career ! 323 ! 124 ! 92 ! 4674 ! 2269 ! 6943 ! 1119 ! 841 ! 0.4 ! 0.3 ! 14.5 ! 7.0 ! 21.5 ! 3.5 ! 2.6

Coaching statistics

! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal"|2020 ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal"|2021 ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal"|2022 (S6) ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal"|2022 (S7) ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal"|2023 ! colspan=2| Career totals ! 46 ! 18 ! 27 ! 1 ! 39% ! colspan=2|

Honours and achievements