Welcome BACK to Norwood Cooper Murley

The Norwood Football Club is excited to announce the sixth signing of the off-season, with Cooper Murley returning to The Parade in 2024.

Murley is the second club junior returning to Norwood in 2024, with the club earlier today announcing that Alastair Lord had also committed to the Redlegs for next season.

Murley has spent the last two seasons on Collingwood’s AFL list, while Lord returns to Norwood having spent two seasons on Essendon’s AFL list.

The Redlegs pair were taken at picks 46 (Lord) and 49 (Murley) in the 2021 AFL Draft.

The 20-year-old Murley played 20 VFL games in 2023, kicking 13 goals.

Norwood Coach Jade Rawlings was pleased to welcome the Tea Tree Gully prospect back to the club.

“Cooper was part of both our Norwood Junior and Senior programs in 2021 prior to being drafted to Collingwood,” Rawlings said.

“We have a desire to provide an opportunity and a place for our Norwood juniors to come back to.

“We met with Cooper to discuss what his AFL experience was like, and we couldn’t be more impressed with his view on his two years at Collingwood and the growth he was able to establish.

“We feel as though he has a burning desire to be a part of Norwood again, and continue to strive to improve his footy.

“We think he will slot back into our program seamlessly, and we are excited that he’s chosen to come back to South Australia and play with us.”

Murley played four Reserves matches for Norwood in his U18 Draft year of 2021, and played predominantly as a midfielder during his Junior career at Norwood.

“We want to expose him to being a midfielder,” Rawlings said.

“Cooper was a mid at Norwood and we would like to explore that again. We think he can be a mid-forward similar to Baynen Lowe and new recruit Billy Cootee.

“We want him to train with the mids over summer.”

Murley joins Mitch O’Neill, Ben Simpson, Billy Cootee, Joeve Cooper and Alastair Lord as new signings.