Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen Grammar: Jack Burnett lays bare challenges of club captaincy

New Aberdeen Grammar captain Jack Burnett. Image: Chris Sumner/DC Thomson
Aberdeen Grammar captain Jack Burnett. Image: Chris Sumner/DC Thomson

His first season as club captain has been about as challenging as it could have been for Aberdeen Grammar’s Jack Burnett.

Grammar find themselves embroiled in a relegation battle for the second successive campaign, the injury problems of 2021-22 swapped for the wild inconsistency of 2022-23.

Burnett, a Grammar stalwart, was appointed club captain last year amid a raft of changes on the back of Premiership relegation.

Piecing together where things have gone wrong this season and trying to see a brighter future for Grammar has been difficult.

“I didn’t anticipate us being in the same position two years in a row and that is challenging,” said Burnett.

“The player pool is quite small, which is another challenge and I feel I carry the weight of that with the number of players we’re able to recruit and keep at Grammar.

“We’ve lost some key players through the season. Patrick Mulholland was a star for us last season, Scott Renfrew was a powerful forward, Patrick Ritchie has left us to join the navy. These are big players who were playing consistently in the Premiership.

New Aberdeen Grammar captain Jack Burnett (right), with lead coach Nat Coe (left) and second team coach Craig McLeod
Jack Burnett (right), with Grammar co-lead coach Nat Coe (left) and second team coach Craig McLeod

“I’ve got a really good network of mates at the club who help me an awful lot. I’ve been at the club all my rugby-playing life; I’m almost as much a fan of Aberdeen Grammar as a player.

“I want the club to do well and succeed, to win on Saturdays and celebrate with the people who come and watch our games. I want that badly. I hope we can give them that on Saturday.

“There’s people at the club who still have a lot to give, people whose journeys with Grammar have just begun. That’s exciting.

“There’s a lot of people trying to do the right thing and it will come good. We will find the bottom of the trough and bounce back up.

“It’s a case of pulling together, until the end of the season, and fighting until the final bell.”

Need for a regroup after Dundee loss

The hammering at the hands of Dundee last weekend came as a huge shock and the magnitude of the defeat was not lost on the players.

It robbed them of another opportunity to claim valuable points, against a team they had already beaten this season.

“I think we realised losing the game puts us in a really difficult position,” said Burnett.

“I wouldn’t say there was necessarily frank discussions; we all know the situation and we all know we’re running out of weeks to accumulate points.

Aberdeen Grammar were beaten 59-0 by Dundee. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson
Aberdeen Grammar were beaten 59-0 by Dundee. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson

“We all realise losing that game was a pretty big hurdle to fall at. At this stage of the season, with enough points to play for, we expected a better performance from ourselves.

“The mood after the game was pretty sombre. I think people feel we’ve got a point to prove and we’ve played beneath ourselves in a number of games this season.”

Grammar welcome GHK to Rubislaw this weekend, with five games left of the season.

They sit second-bottom of National One and as it stands will be one of three teams to go down, ahead of a league restructure this summer.

“We probably need to focus on one game at a time – not worry about the league table and other results,” added Burnett.

In an ordinary season, when they weren’t restructuring the leagues, we’d be looking at things very differently

“We can’t control referees, the bounce of the ball, the weather; we just have to play rugby the way we know we can. I don’t think we’ve done that this season the way we can.

“It’s frustrating being in the same position two years in a row. In an ordinary season, when they weren’t restructuring the leagues, we’d be looking at things very differently.

“We’d say it was disappointing but that we’d done well to stay in the league. The restructure paints the picture that it’s more disappointing, with the bottom three getting relegated, and makes the job even harder for us.

“We need to remember it is a slightly abnormal year and there have been some good performances along the way – just not as many as we’d like.”

  • National 3 leaders Gordonians will not be in action this weekend. Jim Greenwood’s side were due to host Murrayfield Wanderers at Countesswells on Saturday but Wanderers have insufficient players to field a team. The visitors have been docked three points.

Conversation