Australian Football

Tough, courageous, and hard at the ball, but always impeccably fair, Geoff Morris was a leading light at West Adelaide for fourteen seasons, during which time he played 220 SANFL games and kicked 316 goals. That games total would have been considerably higher had his fearlessly aggressive style of play not given rise to so many injuries. During the course of his career he suffered a broken leg, broken jaw and broken wrist, plus numerous soft tissue injuries, forcing him to miss roughly 80 games.

Born in Mount Gambier, Morris moved to Adelaide with his family in 1966, and played his early football at Plympton High and with West’s junior grades. He made his league debut in 1973 as a wingman, and played in either that position or on a half forward flank for the bulk of his career. In 1979 he starred at centre wing for South Australia during the Perth state of origin carnival, and was rewarded with All Australian selection. Four years later came the highlight of his career when he was close to best afield in Westies’ 21.16 (142) to 16.12 (108) Grand Final win over Sturt.

In January 1985, aged 30, Morris was badly burned in an accident on his motor boat, and although he made a number of league appearances from off the bench in both 1985 and 1986, he never played a full game for West again. It was a sad and immensely frustrating end to a fine career which also entailed a spell playing for Wanderers in the Darwin competition.

In 1994 Geoff Morris returned to the Bloods as non-playing coach, steering the side to eighth and fifth place finishes in his two seasons in charge.

Author - John Devaney