- St Kilda legend Nathan Burke had ‘fatalistic thoughts’ when driving
- Lacked direction after Western Bulldogs sacked him as AFLW coach
- Burke, 54, has bravely shared his story to help others struggling
AFL great Nathan Burke has revealed his battle with anxiety at one stage was so extreme he feared he would die when driving.
Burke, 54, is a St Kilda legend who spent his entire senior footy career with the Saints following his 1987 debut.
After retiring in 2003, Burke was the club’s director from 2008 to 2015, before turning his attention to coaching.
Success was hard to come by with the Western Bulldogs’ AFLW squad, and come last November, Burke was moved on by powerbrokers at Whitten Oval after five years at the helm.
With his life passion taken away, Burke was lacking direction.
While not suicidal, Burke found himself constantly worrying about what could go wrong in his life, with the tipping point a drive through Sydney with his wife Fiona.
‘We were on our way to the Gold Coast and my anxiety was manifesting itself in a really weird way,’ he told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast.
‘I wasn’t going to deliberately drive off the [Sydney Harbour] bridge. It was the fear of it.
AFL great Nathan Burke has revealed his battle with anxiety at one stage was so extreme he feared he would die when driving (pictured, when coaching the Western Bulldogs AFLW team)
Burke, 54, is a St Kilda legend who spent his entire senior footy career with the Saints following his 1987 debut (pictured, in 2003)
‘I didn’t trust myself to be able to stay in the line and I had all those sort of fatalistic thoughts of going over the edge.’
Burke soon saw a psychologist, who diagnosed the Saints legend with a phobia similar to a fear of flying.
And as he reflects on his time at the Bulldogs, Burke admits the decision to move him on was the right call.
Also infamously telling the playing group in the sheds they weren’t fit enough after one defeat didn’t help his cause either.
‘We had a 1-9 season [in 2023].. it’s not great,’ he said. ‘I can go through the injuries.
‘But at the end of the day it doesn’t make a difference.
‘They (Bulldogs) waited until I did all the exit interviews with the players, And I had my list of things to improve on and the roles we needed to fill and I never got the chance to (present it).
‘Then there was a meeting where I was told, ‘Hey, this is untenable, we need to move you on.
‘I wanted to work with (then assistant coach) Kate McCarthy – who is now a star media performer – but they had grander plans in place.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk