Over the last few years there has been a superannuation fund advertising campaign urging people to compare the pair.
As Shannon Hurn prepares to edge past Dean Cox as the game’s record holder at the West Coast Eagles, it would seem an appropriate time to do just that.
Two men of similar backgrounds, but vastly different journeys on a path to 290 games.
Cox, a tall, lean colt from Dampier; a naïve country boy when he rocked up for his first pre-season at any level and received the biggest possible jolt into reality at his debut training session. A 2km time trial, what’s that?
The dream was earning a place on the rookie list for the club he had admired from afar. To stand alongside his heroes, casually trading drop punts with Guy McKenna, Dean Kemp and Peter Matera before training.
He was feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
Half-way through that time trial he had a different feeling in his stomach. Faint and nauseous, his legs so wobbly he wondered whether they would hold him upright over the last few hundred metres.
Of course, it is legendary now that Cox, from that eye-opening start, became an Eagles legend. A premiership player in 2006, Club Champion in 2008, a six-time all-Australian. And on the eve of this season a member of the elite and exclusive list in the West Coast Hall of Fame.
While Cox left that shocking session of initiation exhausted, probably questioning the wisdom of jumping into the deep end of elite sport, he would become a game changer; the fourth midfielder to Chris Judd, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr.
He was also a gregarious character, front and centre at fines sessions. A larrikin who loved getting back to the north-west in the off-season and escaping to a family shack on the Dampier peninsula for a fishing excursion. It usually involved a few cold beers too.
Cox was also an accomplished basketballer and had fine sporting pedigree. His mother, Mary, was from the famed Michalczyk clan – her brothers Richard and George both excelled at the game. It was George who suggested to his former East Perth teammate Trevor Nisbett that his nephew had something.
It wasn’t obvious at the start, but neither was his endurance. And that became one of his best weapons as his influence brought a change to the way game was played; not too far removed the impact of Graham “Polly” Farmer, whose use of the handball revolutionised football in the 60s and 70s.
Hurn also has country roots, but rather than hailing from the north-west of this vast State he is a native of Angaston, in the famous wine-growing region of the Barossa Valley, in South Australia.
Before he was drafted with selection #13 in the 2005 ballot he had already played in two senior premierships with Central District in the SANFL.
He was a multi-disciplinary sports star, holding a rookie contract with the SA Cricket Association before opting to devote himself to football when the time came that he could no longer marry his two sporting loves.
He is a third generation ‘Bunga’; the nickname given to his grandfather, Brian and his dad, William. Genetically they gave Bunga Hurn III a fair start in his sporting life.
Brian played Sheffield Shield cricket with distinction for SA and was a star for Angaston in the Barossa Light and Gawler Football Association, winning the competition fairest and best. William played 135 games for Centrals.
The genes run deeper than that, though. Brian was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 1999, for his service to local government (he was mayor of the Barossa Council from 1996 to 2014), an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for services to country and metropolitan football and a centenary medal in 2001 for services to the community.
When the Hurns commit to something, they really commit. It speaks to their character and the values. They are as grounded as the dirt they work.
Understanding where Hurn comes from, just as it does with Cox, provides a pretty good handle on who he is; a humble, uncomplicated bloke with a dry sense of humour who loves fishing. Honest, reliable and as trust-worthy with the Sherrin in his hands as he is as a bloke.
On the family sheep and wine property – you couldn’t have acreage in the Barossa without growing grapes - it’s about digging in and getting the job done. He adopts the same philosophy to his football.
As Hurn prepares to break the record for games played, in this Sunday’s RAC Derby against Fremantle, it is testimony to his mindset. He sticks to the basics, recovers and prepares well, trains with purpose, plays his role and is the best teammate possible.
Latterly he can be found on days off, rolling out he laps in the pool at Mineral Resources Park. That has become an acquired taste, not something he took to from the beginning. Influenced by one of his closest mates, Matt Priddis, whose durability could be attributed to his penchant for the water, has seen Hurn regularly chasing that black line on the pool floor.
He never compromises his preparation and that has been the secret to 290 games, two all-Australian selections in 2018 and 2019 when there was a strong argument to suggest he should also have been named captain. After all he became a premiership captain in 2018, when they opted to install Lance Franklin, a wonderful player, but never a club captain.
In 2019, when he was the reigning premiership captain, they went with Nat Fyfe.
It is fitting that Hurn should return from a soleus strain to register his 291st game in a derby.
He has three-times been adjudged best afield in these games and the club will look to him to play a key role in orchestrating a strong response to the disappointing loss to Geelong last week.
