Former Teammate That Swayed Norton

Friday, April 21, 2023

NBL veteran Mitch Norton has revealed a former Townsville Crocodiles teammate was part of the reason he chose to move back to his home state.

Norton recently signed a two-year deal with the Brisbane Bullets and will be reunited with a familiar face in Greg Vanderjagt.

Vanderjagt, assistant coach of the Bullets, jumped straight on the phone once news broke that the Perth Wildcats no longer had a position for Norton at the club and swayed his former Crocs teammate to join him in Brisbane.

“Vandy is someone I’m pretty close with, he was my roommate back when we played together at the Crocs,” Norton told Newscorp.

“I spent a lot of time on the phone with (coach) Justin Schueller, Vandy and (assistant) Darryl McDonald chatting about style of play and how I can help the team. Everything they said really excited me with the way Brisbane are moving and it was something I didn’t want to miss.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SIGNED ??<br><br>Former Perth Wildcat Mitch Norton is heading back to his home state of Queensland to represent the <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrisbaneBullets</a> for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL24?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL24</a> ?<br><br>Read more: <a href="https://t.co/UuSECNLKyE">https://t.co/UuSECNLKyE</a> <a href="https://t.co/PVRnmlGYd1">pic.twitter.com/PVRnmlGYd1</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1648522991758868480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Vanderjagt and Norton were roommates back in the day when the pair played for the Crocodiles, where Norton began his NBL career.

The Bullets are shaping up to be an experienced team this season with Norton teaming up with Boomers Aron Baynes and Nathan Sobey, a trio Norton is “very excited” for.

Brisbane’s first game of NBL24 will take place on Friday September 29 at 7:30pm AEST against the Adelaide 36ers.

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