[2] Going into the Grand Final battling a hamstring injury, coach Neil Kerley assigned Burgess had the task of playing on Sturt's champion full-forward Rick Davies who was sitting on 149 goals for the season.
[2] In West Adelaide's two minor round games against Sturt in 1983, Kerley had tried Peter Winter on the man the called the "Jumbo Prince", and he had kicked 15 goals.
[2] With Davies regarded as Sturt's main danger, Burgess' effort on him played a large role in the Bloods' 34 point win, though he largely credits West Adelaide's backline for restricting Sturt and Davies and plays down his own roll on the day.
[3][4] At the end of the 1986 season, Burgess was one of the three players that Collingwood offered to the Brisbane Bears, as each club had to, but he instead returned to West Adelaide.
[6] Burgess coached the West Adelaide under-19s to a premiership in 2002, after what had been a tough year for the club, which had lost player Jake Watson (the son of Burgess' 1983 premiership winning team mate Larry Watson), who died after collapsing on the field during a match.