Make it through the season. Make it through that next week.
"And you couldn't help but think it, the kid was built like a jockey," Eels great Dean Pay concedes. "First time I shook Burty's hand I remember thinking, 'Mate, how are you gunna survive here?' He was so scrawny. And 17 at a time when only someone like Freddy Fittler had been starring at that age.
"Guys like myself and Jason Smith, we would actually get into a shout with his old man after games while Luke sat drinking lemonade."
OK, so how the bloody hell has he done it, then?
How has Luke Kevin Burt - this surfer boy who entered the NRL weighing 71kg, who couldn't drink with his peers and, according to Michael Buettner, "spent years talking about Spongebob Squarepants" - not end up in a body bag or wearing his backside as a hat?
Indeed, how does he remain an NRL powerhouse despite still giving some 24kg to rivals like Warrior Manu Vatuvei? How is he a Blue and Gold Army favourite despite having lost his coveted fullback spot to superstar Jarryd Hayne?
And how does a fella with no Origin jerseys, Test caps or NRL commercials filmed in his honour not only threaten to equal the Parramatta tryscoring record of Brett Kenny tonight - but achieve it 43 games quicker than one of the greatest Eels ever?
Burt, see, isn't supposed to be doing anything like this. Ever.
"So, what's the secret? Ahhh, dunno," the Eels winger laughs now, speaking down the phone line with League Central while bathing his two kids, Lincoln and Sophie. "There's nothing too special. But I don't think I'd call myself a stupid player."
Indeed, if there is one thing that makes Burt great, a superhero cape of sorts for his unbelievable success, it's that this son of a Newcastle roof tiler isn't just an athlete in footy boots, he's a genuine footballer.
It's why Burt goalkicks at 77 per cent. Why he boasts most points by any Eel in a match twice. And why only a couple of years back, he kept rival coaches awake at night with a play-the-ball speed which was the envy of every other player in the NRL.
"Luke Burt isn't here because his old man stands six feet tall or his mum runs the hundred in 11 seconds," retired Eels hooker Dean Schifilliti says. "Burty's here because he's one of the few true footy players left in our game.
"Watch him and you'll see how he always manages to be slightly quicker than the guy chasing him.
"Always gets to the ball before his rival. A winger forever finding his way to that tryline when no one else thinks he will."
Yet while Burt may be blessed with the type of league smarts that once saw him score 190 points in an SG Ball season spanning 13 games, there is also a work ethic that has increased as those blond locks disappeared.
For proof, ask Buettner about those countless hours he spent, on request, running at Burt while training to hone defensive skills. Or UFC lightweight Jamie Te Huna, who is forever telling fellow fighters about the wiry winger who battled on with a smashed and bloodied nose because, hey, while he ain't much of a fighter, the bloke wasn't leaving that cage until there had been a fight, either.
Nathan Hindmarsh loves the guy. Wendell Sailor insists he's sledge-proof. While Eels conditioner Hayden Knowles wants you to know how Burt hobbled painfully through almost every exercise over summer because, despite coming off ankle surgery, "the guy just never misses a session".
"But for me, the training yarn that best sums up Burty is when he broke his collarbone," Nathan Cayless, the retired prop now selling industrial real estate for Colliers International, insists.
"He spent three, four months workin' his backside off to get back yet, when he was finally ready, they ran Brett Hodgson at him - just a little test against the lightest bloke we could find - and he broke it again. No one could believe it but Burty. He just disappeared to start from scratch."
This, see, is how Burt continually answers that question Pay never asked him aloud.
With consistency. Reliability. And such dogged resistance you have to ask what, besides the hairline, has changed over all these years?"Ah, not much," Burt grins. "My old man Dave is still coming to games ... and I'm back in the corner drinking lemonade afterwards."
Replies
Hopefully, when he does get the record, the whole stadium will go into a huge roar in appreciation for Burty.
One of the NRL's all round good guys, I love the fact at Parramatta we have so many of them..
HIndy, Manner, Ben Smith, Moi Moi and last season Cayless
These guys are the core of our club and are great role models
Yeah tell me about it.. I read the article and just had to put it up! It is a good read, but most importantly, he is a great guy and deserves whatever accolades come his way!
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