The son of John Burns (1829–1897),[1] and Martha Burns (1833–1914), née Harrison,[2] Peter Charles Burns was born at Steiglitz, Victoria, on 5 January 1866. One of his brothers, Allen Burns, played for South Melbourne in the VFL.
Peter Burns married Elizabeth Corbett (1867–1951) in South Melbourne on 18 April 1889.[3][4]
Burns was a tall ruckman and full-back who made his debut in 1881, aged 16 years,[5] with Ballarat Imperials before transferring to powerful VFA club South Melbourne in 1885.[6]
In his last VFA game, in Round 20 of 1896, Burns played his 216th career game to break the Victorian elite football games record held by former South Melbourne teammate and captain Henry "Sonny" Elms.
Following the Victorian Football League's formation in 1897, Burns would play a further 89 games before his retirement during the 1902 season, which was due to a leg injury he sustained while playing for Victoria against South Australia on 26 June 1902[7] rather than any loss of form.[8]
He served as Geelong's timekeeper from his retirement in 1902[9] until the end of the 1941 season (the sixtieth year of his association with Australian rules football).[10] Geelong did not compete in the VFL competition in 1942 and 1943, due to war-time travel restrictions.
At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus, Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:
From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season.[11]
Burns was the first player in elite Australian rules football to play 250 games, achieving this feat in Round 17 of the 1898 VFL season, and subsequently the first to play 300 games, achieving this feat in Round 2 of 1902.[12]
His career total of 305 games remained a Victorian elite football record until it was broken by Gordon Coventry in the 1937 Grand Final, which was also Coventry's last game, with Burns in attendance as Geelong's timekeeper.
Burns also played 14 intercolonial/interstate football matches for Victoria. If these are included, Burns was also the first player to play 300 career senior games, a feat he achieved in Round 6 of 1901, and his total of 319 career senior games was an elite Victorian elite football record until it was broken by Gordon Coventry in Round 10 of 1937; Coventry retired at the end of that season with 331 career senior games.
