Shannon Hurn retirement: West Coast Eagles veteran lauded as “a good a kick as you will ever see in the game”

In round five of 2006 he accepted a square up kick from Tyson Stenglein against Brisbane at Subiaco Oval, launched a drop punt on the run from 55 metres, split the middle and hit the back fence behind the goal on the half volley.

Most of Hurn’s kicks were executed exiting defensive fifty and not shooting on goal but, as Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett said in the wake of Hurn’s retirement on Tuesday: “He was as good a kick as you will ever see in the game”.

Hurn, 35, is expected to add two more games to his 332 game tally before he hangs the boots up at the end of the season. He will be spared the six day turnaround to play Essendon in Melbourne this week but will play in the Western Derby against Fremantle in round 22 and the home game against Adelaide in round 24.

He will sit the best part of three seasons clear of Jack Darling (273 games) and Andrew Gaff (271) as the Eagles all-time games record holder for some time to come.

Hurn is the first domino to fall as we ponder how many West Coast veterans make way at the end of the year. Skipper Luke Shuey’s career hangs in the balance on 247 games after yet another hamstring issue against Carlton. He is expected to join Hurn in the derby and will need to play all three games from there to get to 250.

If he suffers another soft tissue issue it is likely to tip the scales in favour of retirement.

As West Coast leaders go, Nisbett rates Hurn, Shuey’s predecessor as captain, at the top of the tree. He had been chosen to replace Darren Glass, a very good captain himself, when Glass surprised everyone by pulling the pin on his career midway through the 2014 season, Adam Simpson’s first year as coach.

Simpson and the Eagles took the opportunity to explore who the right successor would be by rotating the captaincy duties through the back half of the season. Hurn’s competition for the role included players like Josh Kennedy who kicked 61 goals in 2014 and Matt Priddis, who won the Brownlow that year.

Both Kennedy and Priddis were much loved and respected at the club and set very high professional standards but the Eagles were still comfortable that Hurn would make the best leader.

Simpson’s team went from missing finals in 2014 to playing in a grand final in 2015.

In 2018, Hurn was a premiership captain.

That season the Eagles adopted the “friends, family, flags” motto to symbolise the togetherness and bond of a group striving for success. For Hurn, a country boy from South Australia’s Angaston with a no frills approach to elite sport and life, it could just as easily have been “farming, fishing and footy”.

“What we saw was complete honesty I think,” Nisbett said on Tuesday of Hurn’s most noticeable leadership quality – the one which stood him and his teammates in greatest stead.

“Shannon is no nonsense, simplifies everything and is very clear in direction. It is his greatest trait and his greatest leadership ability. There is no nonsense with him.

“He is a consummate professional. He sets the highest of standards and he doesn’t need to say a lot. He would never ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t do and it sets him apart from the majority of players. There are not many like him.”

Hurn had been a great captain at West Coast. His quiet, no-fuss style represented the perfect steadying influence at a club whose massive size and prime place in the WA football market occasionally led individuals to get carried away with themselves.

“Once the captaincy rotation started it was blatantly obvious. As much as the other guys were probably good leaders in their own right – there are not many like Shannon,” Nisbett said.

“For his leadership and his standards he set he probably sits at the top of the tree. There has never been any question about him living the highest standards.”

But to focus only on Hurn the captain would not do justice to Hurn the player.

He is a two-time All-Australian and had the ability to show the greatest of traits a defender can possess: to play on different sizes and shapes.

He showed it again on Sunday against North Melbourne when he pitted his 187 centimetre frame against Nick Larkey’s 198 centimetres and came out on top, restricting Larkey to two goals and paving the way for a five point win which broke West Coast’s 16 game losing streak.

The issue for Hurn, at 35 and pondering whether to go on or not, was not whether he could still play well. It was whether he could recover quickly enough to play well again the next week.

He has played 12 of West Coast’s 19 games so far this year and been rested and managed a number of times.

“He doesn’t want to play and not contribute. That was part of the process I think,” Nisbett said after a long talk with Hurn prior to his announcement.

Others at West Coast had bigger profiles and greater flair than Hurn.

Nisbett has no doubt that few had a higher level of performance.

“I would guess he is in our best dozen players as well because of his ability to use the footy,” he said. “He was critical in those years leading into the 2018 premiership year.

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“We talk glowingly about Bluey McKenna and his use of the footy. Shannon was equal to Bluey at least, if not better. One of the best kicks you will ever see in the game.”

Nisbett said Hurn would make a “very, very good coach” assuming he would ever want to.

“At the moment he would want to take a breath,” he continued. “He has been at it for 18 years. It is a long time without a break.”