CALE Morton used to go into games wanting to get as many possessions as he could.

It was the way he played. Run hard, receive and kick.

He moved across the ground on instinct and took risks; early on in his career it worked.

The rangy, line-breaking backman was taken by Melbourne at pick No.4 in the national draft, followed by top 10 best and fairest finishes in his first two AFL seasons.

When Morton beat then-teammate Tom Scully in a 3km time trial in his third pre-season and former Brisbane coach Michael Voss labelled the Demons the next AFL ”superpower”, everything seemed perfect.

“I probably skyrocketed up the draft pecking order on the back of the national carnival, and in a sense, I ran before I could walk,” Morton said.

“I had a big impact in my first couple of years, as a confident kid with a massively attacking mindset and a big tank.

“But then, as the pressures and expectation of being drafted high to a club that had not had much success in the past couple of years came — not just on me but on everyone — my mindset changed.”

Nine operations, eight years and numerous appointments with the sports psychologist later, the player voted Melbourne’s best first-year player was cast on the AFL scrapheap after being traded by the Demons for nothing and delisted after only one season on the rookie list at West Coast in 2013.

Those around the 192cm utility would understand if he gave up on the sport, if it had not already have passed up on him.

But the man who grew up next door to Fremantle superstar Nathan Fyfe in Lake Grace, Western Australia, kicking the footy with him every day after school, says he still loves the game.

And what’s in his favour is that this year, recruiters are scouring the country for left-field and second-chance draft options amid one of the shallowest talent pools of the past decade.

So, on Sunday, a much more mature and determined Morton will pull on a Coburg jumper at Piranha Park, desperate to re-enter the AFL system in November’s draft, albeit the hard way.

In the pre-season, he met several AFL clubs as part of an 18-month plan to rekindle his career.

He said it was a “humbling experience” calling recruiters and asking to train at their clubs, instead of them calling him, as it was back in 2007.

“I feel personally like there is so much fire in the belly, still. There’s unfinished business,” he said.

While most pundits may think that opportunity has passed Morton, the 25-year-old says he has learned why the AFL system spat him out, not once, but twice.

“It’s more of a defensive mindset for me, now,” Morton said.

“Probably for the first time in my senior footy career, I’m approaching games with a mindset based around team defence and nullifying my opponent, rather than going out and getting 30 possessions and things like that, which, to be honest, probably was my focus for the first few years.

“I’ve found that balance between playing on an opponent and then running off and attacking and building that side of my game.”

In 12 VFL games this season, the previously free-running linkman has conceded only four goals to his direct opponent, while averaging 20 possessions a game.

Morton says he owes coach Peter German, in part, for helping guide his transformation into a more miserly mindset, which has included some stints in the forward line.

Melbourne coach Paul Roos has said the pressure the club put on its top draft picks was a key reason for its downfall.

While Roos has since changed the club culture dramatically, Morton agrees the expectations of young players at Melbourne during his time there were counterproductive to good development.

“At a time when the club was not going so well, the club looked to their early draft picks as guys who they thought should have been doing better,” he said.

“Unfortunately, at that time, I felt as though you were judged where you went in the draft, instead of being just one of 45 players on the list.

“Guys like myself and Jack Watts and Jack Trengove and even Tom Scully were getting hammered, I guess, and that’s one of the downsides to going early in the draft because when the team is not going so well, you are the first ones to cop it.

“From fans and external people outside the club, too, the weight of expectation can be pretty intense, and upon reflection it certainly was a factor for me.”

Morton wishes AFL mirrored some American sports where players are drafted a few years older.

But, ultimately, he agrees he was picked too early in the 2007 draft.

“We’d all love to develop like the young guys do at Geelong and at Sydney, but at the end of the day, that’s the environment they’ve got at the club and not every club has that sort of strong environment where players develop at such a high rate,” he said.

At West Coast, Morton had two, 16 and 13 disposals in his only three senior games, as all sub, but was out of contract and then coach John Worsfold was sacked.

“I feel like it ended suddenly and that it honestly ended too soon, but it only motivates me to get back in,” he said.

“The way things have panned out this year I feel like I am better prepared to AFL football now than I ever have been and if I get that opportunity, I will go about things a lot differently.”