(165th Eagles player)
Richmond leading goalscorer (2009)
The oldest of three brothers who played at AFL level, Mitch Morton was a clever forward who started his career at West Coast before having more success at Richmond and then Sydney.
West Coast career[]
In an interesting twist on the father-son rule, West Coast was able to draft the highly-rated junior with a third-round pick owing to his father Noel’s career at Claremont, before the AFL decided that Noel did not actually qualify (he crossed the 150-game mark in 1987, the year West Coast entered the competition) and prevented the Eagles from selecting the two younger Morton brothers. Brother Jarryd played 22 games for Hawthorn and the youngest Morton, Cale, was a top-4 pick at Melbourne where he played 73 games. Cale spent 2013 on the West Coast list, playing three games before being delisted at the end of the year.
The eldest Morton sibling made his debut late in the 2005 season and played three games, before being sent back to Claremont where he played in the Tigers’ losing grand final. He played just one game in the 2006 premiership year, the big home win over ladder-leading Adelaide.
Morton was called up a couple of months into the 2007 and immediately impressed, kicking 3 goals against the Demons followed by a 22-touch effort against Hawthorn the following week. He played eight games for the year, but was dropped on the eve of the finals for some returning stars, despite another 3-goal haul in the final home and away round. At the end of the season he sought a trade to Richmond.
Richmond and Sydney career[]
As a Tiger Morton played 59 games, leading the Tigers in goals in 2009 after finishing equal second behind Matthew Richardson in 2008. He fell out of favour in 2010 and 2011 and was then traded to Sydney, where he played in the 2012 premiership in just his fifth game as a Swan, coming on as the sub and kicking two important late goals. At the end of the 2013 season, after 12 games at Sydney and at just 26 years of age, he announced his retirement.
Post-AFL career[]
Morton reunited with his siblings at Perth for the 2014 season.
Stats[]
| AFL | Gm | G | B | K | M | H | D | T | Cl | WAFL | Gm | G | B | K | M | H | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 20 | 0 | 0 | Cl | 18 | 27 | ||||||
| 2006 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 23 | 16 | 167 | 85 | 46 | 213 | ||
| 2007 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 67 | 37 | 42 | 106 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 25 | 10 | 171 | 75 | 56 | 227 | ||
| Tot | 12 | 11 | 2 | 84 | 50 | 53 | 137 | 14 | 6 | |||||||||
| Avg | 0.9 | 7.0 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 11.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
Links[]
http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/M/Mitch_Morton.html