THREE-TIME premiership player Shaun Burgoyne says captaining the Indigenous All Stars will be one of the greatest honours of his career.
The Hawthorn veteran was voted by his peers to captain the All Stars team against West Coast in Friday night's clash at Medibank Stadium in Perth.
Gold Coast Sun Jarrod Harbrow has been named vice-captain.
"It's something that I'm very proud of," Burgoyne said.
"I grew up playing for an all-indigenous team in Port Lincoln.
"So this game just gives me memories of being a kid again and playing with my family.
"Adam Goodes and Andrew McLeod have been previous captains so to follow in their footsteps it's going to be quite hard but exciting as well.
"I feel very happy and privileged to be captain of this team."
While focussed on the task of representing the All Stars, Burgoyne did reveal that Hawthorn had not discussed the prospect of a three-peat this season due to the shortened nature of the Hawks' pre-season.
"We haven't spoken about that yet," Burgoyne said.
"It has been a rushed pre-season really.
"So we'll concentrate on the NAB Challenge and work our way from there. But obviously we will be looking for top four, finals and that stuff.
"But it's such a long year and we learned last year that injuries can happen to key players and the coach.
"It's a bit of a cliche but we can't look too far ahead."
The Eagles named their captain with midfielder Chris Masten taking the reigns of a very young side that won't feature skipper Shannon Hurn, vice-captains Josh Kennedy and Scott Selwood, or Brownlow medallist Matt Priddis.
Masten said he was rapt to get the chance to captain the side.
"I'm pretty pumped for it," Masten said.
"We've got a pretty young side out there. Being a bit older than the boys playing, it will be nice to lead them out and have a bit of fun.
"I've come a long way. I was pretty immature when I got drafted. It's nice to be given the honour."
Masten said the Eagles would be taking the game seriously despite fielding an inexperienced line-up, but revealed he would keep his pre-game speech fairly light-hearted.
"I'll just try to get a few laughs I reckon," Masten said.
Tickets to Friday night's game are available for purchase via Ticketmaster. For all event information and to secure your tickets, please visit www.ticketmaster.com.au.
