Michael Newton (born 27 April 1987) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) and the

Norwood Football Club The Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Its home ground is Norwood Oval, Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which is often referred ...

in the

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

Career

Originally from Whorouly, Newton was taken at pick 43 in the 2004 AFL Draft. He was given plenty of time to mature in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

at the

Sandringham Football Club The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed the Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham, Victoria, Sandringham. It currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the VFL Women's (VF ...

where he had kicked big bags of goals on a number of occasions and before debuting for the Demons in 2007 in Round 13 in

Neale Daniher Neale Francis Daniher (born 15 February 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was later the coach of the Melbourne Football Club between 1998 and 20 ...

's final game as coach. With a knee injury to

David Neitz David Neitz (born 22 January 1975), is a retired Australian rules footballer. A strongly built forward, he debuted at 18 years old. In just his sixth senior game kicked 6 goals 6 behinds. In his 2nd year, with Melbourne's forward line consistin ...

, Newton was required to be a stand in

full forward Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals. The Coleman Medal is awarded to the player, often a full-forward, who has kicked the most goals in an Australian Football League seaso ...

and subsequently played successive games, kicking a goal in his first game and scoring an impressive three goals against Carlton. Having an impressive debut season, he took the 2007 Mark of the year, marking high above a pack, resting on David Neitz's head. Quickly gathering a cult following amongst Demons fans due to his high-marking, Newton now receives shouts of 'Juice' upon every disposal. His nickname was influenced by 1970s American pop and country singer

Juice Newton Juice Newton (born Judith Kay Newton; February 18, 1952) is an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categorieswinning once in 198 ...

, who also provided the same nickname for former Melbourne player Leigh Newton during his brief career in 1997. Newton's

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

season was dominated by a knee injury. After kicking one goal in round 1 against Hawthorn, Newton was dropped to the VFL to play for Melbourne's previously affiliated club,

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...

, which is where he picked up the injury. Newton returned for Melbourne in the AFL late in the 2008 season and was in and out in 2009, although after being dropped to the VFL, Newton responded by booting 5 goals for

Casey Scorpions The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East. The club, which was previously known as the Springvale Football Club (1903–2005) and the Casey Scorpions (2 ...

. Newton managed five games in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

for 60 disposals and kicked six goals. He then played only four games in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. Newton was delisted by Melbourne at the end of the 2011 season. Newton played for Norwood in the SANFL from 2012 to 2015. He played 8 league games in 2012 before rupturing his ACL, requiring a full knee reconstruction, in which he missed out on playing in Norwood's Premiership win over West Adelaide. Newton enjoyed a stellar 2014 season, proving to be a dangerous option up forward, booting 57 goals for the season. He was a part of the 2014 premiership team, which was the third premiership in a row for the Redlegs. Newton now plays for Wangaratta Magpies Football Club in the Ovens and Murray Football Netball League. He kicked eight goals in the 2017 senior football grand final to defeat Albury Tigers by 21 points and was awarded the Did Simpson Medal for best on ground.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Michael 1987 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Melbourne Football Club players Sandringham Football Club players Murray Bushrangers players Norwood Football Club players Casey Demons players Waratah Football Club players Wangaratta Football Club players