Brian Wethers
July 23, 2020
Josh Morgan
- Nationality: AUS
- Date of Birth: 5/07/82
- Place of Birth: Newcastle (NSW)
- Position: PG
- Height (CM): 180
- Weight (KG): 80
- Junior Assoc: NSW - Newcastle
- College:
- NBL DEBUT: 7/11/03
- AGE AT DEBUT: 21
- LAST NBL GAME: 9/02/08
- AGE AT LAST GAME: 25
- NBL History: Hunter 2004-07 | West Sydney 2008
- Championships: 0
- None
NICKNAME/S: Joey or Morgos
BIO: Josh Morgan was born in Newcastle (NSW) where he attended Newcastle High School. He began playing basketball as a member of the under 10s Port Hunter team of the Newcastle basketball association.
Morgan won the gold medal at Under 20s National Champs in 2000.
NBL EXPERIENCE
Josh Morgan made his NBL debut with the Hunter Pirates at 21 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.
As a result of Canberra’s NBL licence moving to Newcastle, former Cannons players Brendan Mann, Matthew Shanahan and Cameron Rigby all came across to the Pirates to form the beginnings of the Pirates roster. Hunter chose not to retain Cannons coach Cal Bruton and signed Bruce Palmer as their first head coach.
Hunter signed rookie point guard Chris Harriman (via Augusta State) straight out of college and filled the remainder of the roster with low-cost imports Kevin Brooks and Chris Brown, local players Morgan and Adam Melmeth, and a number of players who had been discarded by their former clubs like Geordie Cullen (via Wollongong), Michael Kingma (via Sydney) and Travis Lindstrom (via Perth) who were all unable to secure deals elsewhere.
It took six games before the Pirates won their first game, a four-point victory over Adelaide at home (103–99) and then managed to win only one more, a home win against Cairns (109–103) and ended their first season on a 15-game losing streak. Their two win season was the second worst in NBL history (outside of Geelong’s zero win season in 1988).
Initial coach Bruce Palmer was controversially fired partway into the season and was replaced by assistant coach David Simmons but that made little difference to the team’s success.
Cullen (17.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists) would lead the team in scoring and win the league’s Most Improved Player award at the end of the season. Kevin Brooks (16.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.8 assists), Matthew Shanahan (15.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists) and Chris Brown (10.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists) would lead the team in scoring. Starting point guard Brendan Mann (9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals) suffered a season ending injury only three games into the season, resulting in rookie Chris Harriman (7.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 4 assists) stepping into the starting lineup. Harriman would narrowly miss out of winning the Rookie of the Year award, finishing second to West Sydney’s Steven Markovic.
As a rookie, Morgan would play in 25 games for the Pirates and average 2.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.4 assists.
2004/05
In the Pirates second NBL season, Adrian Hurley was enticed out of semi-retirement to take on the role of head coach. Feeling that the team’s roster was weak and a direct result for their poor performance last season. Hurley retained only three players, Geordie Cullen, Brendan Mann and Josh Morgan from the previous season’s squad that won only two games.
Ben Melmeth (via New Zealand), Russell Hinder (via West Sydney), Brad Davidson (via Townsville), Damon Lowery (via Townville) and Larry Davidson formed the Pirates new look roster and imports Brian Wethers and Kavossy Franklin were signed to provide offensive scoring power.
Under the guidance of former Australian coach Adrian Hurley, the Pirates became a force to be reckoned with and after a slow start (1-4), the Pirates began reeling off victories against some of the league’s best team’s, including a away win over Perth (83-77) and defeating league leaders Wollongong (90–81). Ten games into the season and the Pirates sat in fifth spot on the ladder (5-5) with much of the credit going to the unselfish play of imports Brian Wethers (24.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.9 assists) and Kavossy Franklin (20.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.2 steals).
Weathers would go on to be selected in the All-NBL first team and win the league’s Most Valuble Player award and after winning the last two games of the season, Hunter would secure the final playoff berth and finish in eighth place (13-15).
In the Elimination Finals, however, Hunter fell short to Brisbane (99-113), a loss which ended playoff run.
Morgan would appear in 19 games and average 1.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1 assists.
2005/06
The 2005/06 season saw Morgan average 2.5 points, 2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists and play a key role in helping the Pirates to a eighth place finish in the regular season with a 13-19 record.
WEST SYDNEY RAZORBACKS
2007/08
By the 2007/08 season, the Razorbacks were in the midst of a multitude of financial problems. Under new ownership, the team chose not to re-sign coach Cal Bruton, who was hired mid-way through the previous season and added Rob Beveridge, a unproven young coach who was the former head coach of the junior men’s national team. The financial instability of the team saw leading scorer James Harvey and club veteran Scott McGregor both sign deals to play for Gold Coast. To replace them, Beveridge recruited two of his former junior players, University of Loyola Marymount graduates Damian Martin and Matthew Knight. Liam Rush was named team captain, and Darnell Hinson and Troy De Vries were later signed as import players.
a injury to Damian Martin during the pre-season saw him miss the first half of the season, forcing the team to rely on Hinson (20.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.1 steals) and De Vries (16.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists) to carry the offensive load and the ball carrying duties.
West Sydney struggled to be competitive most nights with its young roster, but there were still odd nights that they could squeak out a win if a number of players had big games. A win over the South Dragons (116-106) where Devries (31 points), Hinson (26 points), and Knight (23 points and 14 rebounds) all fired at once or the back-to-back wins where Hinson put up big numbers in wins against Gold Coast (32 points and 8 rebounds) and Cairns Taipans (31 points) but there were highlights for the Razorbacks across the season.
The team’s young frontcourt of Knight (12.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists) and Khazzouh (11.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists) showed promise and was able to double the team’s number of wins from the previous season from 5 to 10.
After spending a season without a spot on a NBL roster, Morgan returned to the league and played in 14 games for the Razorbacks, averaging 1.3 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1 assist.
Newcastle HSJosh Morgan played four seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Hunter Pirates and the West Sydney Razorbacks. He averaged 2 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 91 NBL games.
NBL TOTAL STATISTICS
| SEASON | AGE | TEAM | TEAM RECORD | GP | MINS | PTS | REB | AST | OR | DR | STL | BLK | TO | PF | FGM | FGA | FG% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% | TS% | EFG% | HS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-08 | 25 | West Sydney | 10-20 (10) | 14 | 139.0 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 13 | 6 | 18 | 33% | 2 | 4 | 50% | 4 | 8 | 50% | 41% | 39% | 5 |
| 2005-06 | 23 | Hunter | 13-19 (8) | 33 | 500.0 | 81 | 67 | 51 | 23 | 44 | 28 | 3 | 32 | 31 | 29 | 83 | 35% | 3 | 16 | 19% | 20 | 30 | 67% | 42% | 37% | 8 |
| 2004-05 | 22 | Hunter | 15-17 (8) | 19 | 220.0 | 31 | 40 | 19 | 13 | 27 | 9 | 2 | 9 | 18 | 13 | 38 | 34% | 2 | 8 | 25% | 3 | 9 | 33% | 37% | 37% | 6 |
| 2003-04 | 21 | Hunter | 2-31 (12) | 25 | 421.0 | 56 | 56 | 36 | 23 | 33 | 18 | 3 | 19 | 31 | 26 | 56 | 46% | 2 | 11 | 18% | 2 | 5 | 40% | 48% | 48% | 8 | Totals | 91 | 1280 | 186 | 179 | 120 | 68 | 111 | 62 | 8 | 70 | 93 | 74 | 195 | 37.9% | 9 | 39 | 23.1% | 29 | 52 | 55.8% | 43% | 40% | 8 |
NBL PER GAME STATISTICS
| SEASON | AGE | TEAM | TEAM RECORD | GP | MINS | PTS | REB | AST | OR | DR | STL | BLK | TO | PF | FGM | FGA | FG% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% | TS% | EFG% | HS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-08 | 25 | West Sydney | 10-20 (10) | 14 | 9.9 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 33% | 0.1 | 0.3 | 50% | 0.3 | 0.6 | 50% | 41% | 39% | 5 |
| 2005-06 | 23 | Hunter | 13-19 (8) | 33 | 15.2 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 35% | 0.1 | 0.5 | 19% | 0.6 | 0.9 | 67% | 42% | 37% | 8 |
| 2004-05 | 22 | Hunter | 15-17 (8) | 19 | 11.6 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 34% | 0.1 | 0.4 | 25% | 0.2 | 0.5 | 33% | 37% | 37% | 6 |
| 2003-04 | 21 | Hunter | 2-31 (12) | 25 | 16.8 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 46% | 0.1 | 0.4 | 18% | 0.1 | 0.2 | 40% | 48% | 48% | 8 | Total | 91 | 14.1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 37.9% | 0.0 | 0.0 | 23.1% | 0.1 | 0.4 | 55.8% | 43% | 40% | 8 |
CAREER HIGHS
| POINTS | REBOUNDS | ASSISTS | STEALS | BLOCKS | TURNOVERS | TRIPLE DOUBLES | 8 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
|---|
STATE LEAGUE EXPERIENCE
- Newcastle (2003–2005, 2010–2012, 2014–2016, 2018), Albury-Wodonga (2006–2007, 2017)
Morgan joined Newcastle for the 2003 Waratah League season, starting the first of his provided state league stints with the Hunters and continuing with the club through 2004 and 2005.
Newcastle reached the Waratah League Grand Final in 2004 and finished runner-up to Sydney, then returned to the Grand Final in 2005 and finished runner-up again.
Morgan joined Albury-Wodonga for the 2006 SEABL season and played 24 games with the Bandits, then continued with Albury-Wodonga in 2007 and played 26 games in the second season of that stint.
Morgan returned to Newcastle for the 2010 Waratah League season and remained with the Hunters through 2011 and 2012, with Newcastle reaching the 2011 Waratah League Grand Final and finishing runner-up to Illawarra.
Morgan resumed with Newcastle for the 2014 Waratah League season and continued through 2015 and 2016 as part of the Hunters’ senior men’s group.
Morgan returned to Albury-Wodonga for the 2017 SEABL season, giving him another Bandits stint after his 2006 and 2007 run, and his Albury-Wodonga career total finished at 64 men’s NBL1/SEABL games.
Morgan returned to Newcastle for the 2018 Waratah League season, captained the Hunters to a 17–3 record, first place in the regular season and the club’s first men’s state title in 18 years.
In his final game before retiring, Morgan led Newcastle to the 2018 Waratah League championship as the Hunters defeated Norths 73–67 in the Grand Final, and he was named Waratah Basketball League Defensive Player of the Year.
COACHING HISTORY
Morgan was been appointed head coach of the Newcastle Falcons men's team for the 2024 NBL1 East season. He remained as coach for 2025 and 2026 seasons.
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