Mitch Morton - the contra deal for Judd

[French Tiger]

time will tell. mitch was going from the eagles come what may. he couldnt get a game under worsfold for obvious reasons.

here we have a bloke whos kicked afew goals for us and hes the next big thing.
ask yourselves what do we get out of him when hes not kicking a goal. the answer is simple absolutely nothing. we want to hope the goals never dry up.

He needs to be able to rotate through the midfield,not sure weather it's a fitness thing,but as you stated needs to be able to offer something else as playing as a permenant pocket player is not easy.Still happy with his 1 st yr though

 

[masonat]

That's gold. Don't forget Todd Breman and Ashley "The Whisper" Blurton .. quite possibly the slowest aboriginal born.

we got them back with mark merenda

 

[GoodOne]

ask yourselves what do we get out of him when hes not kicking a goal. the answer is simple absolutely nothing. we want to hope the goals never dry up.

You come up with some good ones. You obviously recruit forwards to kick goals. If he doesn't kick goals then of course he does absolutely nothing for you. Just as a Williams at Hawthorn, a Milne at Saints, Jones at North.

Based on your comments there should be no opportunistic forwards at all just in case they might not kick goals.

For the record Morton finished 22nd in the AFL for average goals kicked per game (24th for total goals contributed including assists). Of the non-key forwards he finished 10th behind names such as Motlop, Burton, Milne, O'Loughlin, Steve Johnson and Paul Medhurst. At 21 years and 7 months he is the 2nd youngest in the Top 40 average per game goal kickers for the season. He failed to score a goal in only 2 games of the 17 he played. All things considered for his experience he had a greeat season, pretty much all you could really ask for. Watching him play I think he has the skill to be one of the elite. Of course time will tell but to be focusing on what happens if he doesn't score goals is...errr...typically Claws.

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[Blueyboy74]

I am with Claw on this one. I am tentatively happy with the deal - #35 for Mitch seems a reasonable deal. He certainly has some tricks & skill. That said, I would like to see him hold his head up more on the lead-up mark (drops it .. read softness) and apply more defensive pressure when the opposition has the ball.

 

[billyb#40]

I have three concerns with Morton, he drops marks after he has cleanly got to them - maybe the Walls-Riewoldt problem of not marking in his outstretched hands?, he plays on from easy setshots, and he didnt get much game time from Wallace, generally 65 percent of game time, even when kicking lots of goals.
He was always noted as an elite kick and showed this with his goal kicking but will he survive the scrutiny of other teams when they work out how he plays. I have some doubts about where he will be in a couple of seasons. I dont think he is especially quick.
But I hope he improves and keeps kicking a bundle of goals.

 

[achillesjones]

At 21, the upside is really good with Mitch. Strong and classy when en song. I watched a very good player in the second round against Essendon in the first half especially. I like the way he can break a game open and can handle opening minutes pressure. For mine, he is a bloody ripper who is capable of anything in a tight final.

 

[CarnTheTiges]

Claw just doesn't like to admit that the club made a decent trade without taking his advice.

 

[Streak]

With regard to the Eagles sending us Stevan Jackson, Todd Breman and Ashley Blurton.

Keep in mind that the we started the whole trade debacle with the Eagles by sending them Corey Young. Clearly it took them a number of years to forgive us.

 

[No 4]

Morton has been a great pick up by the club. He shows hunger and effort. He is our crumbing forward. He will continue to get better. One of the few trades that have worked.

Great goals sense and can take a grab.

 

[GoodOne]

I have three concerns with Morton, he drops marks after he has cleanly got to them - maybe the Walls-Riewoldt problem of not marking in his outstretched hands?, he plays on from easy setshots, and he didnt get much game time from Wallace, generally 65 percent of game time, even when kicking lots of goals.

Would have thought these 3 concerns would be easily dealt with. Especially the 3rd one.

 

[tommystigers]

I'm with BillyB on the fact Mitch appears to have "hard" hands. Yes he can take a grab but he also bobbles a lot of marks that should stick first time. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Leysy Days]

Yeah, Leysy has T-Shirt.

Leysy's not as sold on Mitch as most seem to be. It was a solid & promising enough 1st season with us, but leysy's far from chalked him down as a 10 year player. He really needs to get his fitness up so he can get a kick around the ground, not many eek out a career as a 6ft close to goal forward.

But his major issue is his attack on the football. He is far from non-negotiable. He always looks to see whats around & despite his solid build leysy can tell he despises body contact. His efforts in this regard against Adelaide amongst others were very poor.

Saying that, he has oodles of skill, so if he vastly improve the above as well as his hands in a marking contest as Tommy mentioned he can still chalk out a good career for us. Leysy's just not as sold as most.

 

[Disco08]

I'll be happy with the deal in 5 or 6 years when Morton's still in the side and Polkinghorne and McKenna are playing in some bush league.

 

[AstuteTiger]

time will tell. mitch was going from the eagles come what may. he couldnt get a game under worsfold for obvious reasons.

here we have a bloke whos kicked afew goals for us and hes the next big thing.
ask yourselves what do we get out of him when hes not kicking a goal. the answer is simple absolutely nothing. we want to hope the goals never dry up.

sheez claw, cut him some slack, you said "he couldn’t get a game under worsfold", gee he was drafted in 2004 as a 17 yr old, played his first 2 yrs in 2005 and 2006 as an 18 and 19 yr old and couldn’t break into the all conquering eagles out fit who played off in 2 grand finals, no shame in that...Look some guys take longer than others to develop, i tell ya there were a few young hawks and cats players that didn’t get a game on the weekend, that doesn’t mean they cant play or more to the point not up to it...

In 2007 he played 8 games and kicked by memory in 1 game against the bombers 4 goals...As you well perhaps know the eagles obviously saw his potential and offered him a contract, he rejected it...

We got him for pic 35 in an average draft; we didn’t give a pic 10 or 20...

He Kicked 35 goals from 17 games as a 21 yr old this year...this guy will only get better, very strong body...Ive seen him chase down guys and put pressure on and at times ive seen him not do that, so if there’s one area of his game where he should approve “more” is his defensive pressure when he hasn’t got the ball...Like i said ive seen him do that and other times he hasn’t, so maybe a little inconsistent in that area, but gee he's 21, good overhead and he's improved a hell of a lot from his last year with the eagles...
Bottom line he’s there to kick goals, he’s doing it...

Morton could well be the player who will eventually take over from browny as the main HF when he retires in the next few years...Has certainly taken over from petts...
If Clayton collard gets promoted and plays like ive seen him play late in the year for the burgers he could also be a welcome edition to our fwd line...

People talk about list needs and say the pies traded for what they needed, but like i said last year when that trade went through i had serious doubts on Cameron woods ability as a ruckman, and im an amateur in this field of recruiting just like most on here but if i could see that this guy looked average at best at his time at the lions why the heck didn’t the pies see this, remember they gave up a first round pic (14) not pic 35....Bottom line is sure target the players as per list needs but evaluate his true worth, he's still got to be able to play....What would you reckon he'd command now if he was put on the market?

A couple of the boys at work, i still remember them saying that they were pretty happy when they got him, as the season went on, the tune changed, all i would hear is, this guys a dud, cant even move, not mobile enough...

I just feel sometimes you’re hell bent on your view and your view is the only view it seems like you dont allow your self to have a balanced view, not that we all have to agree on everything, its just an observation...

 

[Darth Tiger]

For some reason I think the Weagles and us have a pretty good relationship.

Yes, it goes back to the Stev Jackson, Todd Bremer, Trent Nichols & Peter Wilson days.

Roller over Richmond

 

[Streak]

Leysy's just not as sold as most.

Agree. He still has a fair bit to prove. Some signs are there, but they always are when you pick up a new player (no wisecracks about our recruiting please) otherwise you don't bother. I am very uncertain as to whther he will prove to be the complete package. But all in all, probably represented a value pick-up with pick 35.

 

[Saladin]

if we had not traded 35 and drafted a youngster would we have got the return we got from Morton ?
Not many 3rd rnd draftees get to play 15 plus games in their first year...