Introduction
Michael Hartley (born 7 June 1993) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Early life
An athletic youngster who excelled in a range of sports, including cricket, basketball and athletics. First played Australian Football as a fourteen year old for Penrith. He was signed by Collingwood as an NSW Scholarship player at the age of 14. Hartley was originally recruited to the club via the NSW Scholarship program in 2008. He represented NSW at the 2011 U18 National Championships where he impressed Collingwood enough for them to Rookie listed him with selection No. 87 in the Rookie Draft.
Collingwood (2012-2013)
Hartley spent 2 years on Collingwood's rookie list. Hartley played five games at VFL level before injuring a shoulder that forced him to miss the rest of the 2012 season. He required more surgery to both shoulders and missed the entire 2013 season but was delisted that year.
After his stint at Collingwood, Hartley had played two seasons for Coburg. In 2015 he won the club’s best and fairest and was selected in the VFL team of the year.
Essendon
He was recruited by the Essendon Football Club with the 68th overall selection in the 2015 national draft.
He made his debut in round 2 of the 2016 AFL season in the club's win against Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He kicked his first AFL goal in the win. He played 19 games in his first season with the club, taking advantage of the season-long bans inflicted because of the Essendon Football Club supplements saga. He played 17 matches out of the possible 23 Essendon matches in 2017.
After only managing 7 games at AFL level in 2018 and 2019. Hartley was offered a one year contract extension to remain with the Bombers, he declined this offer to explore his opportunities elsewhere. He was selected by Hawthorn in the 2019 preseason draft.
Hawthorn
At the conclusion of the 2019 AFL Premiership season, Hartley turned down Essendon’s offer of a one-year contract. Instead opting to try his luck in the pre-season draft, where he was drafted to the Hawthorn Football Club and given a two year deal.
Hartley was assigned guernsey number 27 for the 2020 season.
Statistics
- Statistics are correct to the end of 2019
| G | Goals | B | Behinds | K | Kicks | H | Handballs | D | Disposals | M | Marks | T | Tackles |
| Season | Team | No. | Games | Totals | Averages (per game) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | K | H | D | M | T | G | B | K | H | D | M | T | ||||
| 2012 | Collingwood | 47 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2013 | Collingwood | 47 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2016 | Essendon | 36 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 117 | 71 | 188 | 71 | 59 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 6.2 | 3.7 | 9.9 | 4.1 | 3.1 |
| 2017 | Essendon | 36 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 122 | 90 | 212 | 90 | 45 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.8 | 5.0 | 11.8 | 4.8 | 2.5 |
| 2018 | Essendon | 36 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 15 | 50 | 21 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 8.8 | 3.8 | 12.5 | 5.3 | 1.5 |
| 2019 | Essendon | 36 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 15 | 43 | 15 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 9.3 | 5.0 | 14.3 | 5.7 | 2.0 |
| Career | 44 | 1 | 1 | 302 | 191 | 493 | 202 | 116 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.9 | 4.3 | 11.2 | 4.3 | 2.6 | ||