Karl Lawton (born 29 November 1995) is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who plays as a and forward for the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. He previously played for the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

and the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

Background

Lawton was born in

Murwillumbah, New South Wales Murwillumbah ( ) is a town in far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire, on the Tweed River (New South Wales), Tweed River. Sitting on the south eastern foothills of the McPherson Range in the Tweed Volcano valley, Murwill ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He is the younger brother of former Titans player

Kayne Lawton Kayne Lawton (born 31 May 1989) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played for AS Carcassonne in the Elite One Championship. He previously played for the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League. Playing ...

. Lawton played his junior rugby league for the

Bilambil Jets The Gold Coast Rugby League (also known as the Kevin Bycroft Cup) is a rugby league football competition based in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is under the administration of the Queensland Rugby League through the South East Queensland ...

Tweed Coast Raiders The Tweed Coast Raiders is an Australian rugby league club. It was formed in 1980 and currently field male and female teams in all junior grades of the Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League and Gold Coast Rugby League. The club is based at Les ...

and

Burleigh Bears The Burleigh Bears are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Gold Coast, Australia. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. Since their admission to the competition in 1997, the ...

, before being signed by the

Playing career

Early career

In 2014 and 2015, Lawton played for the Gold Coast Titans'

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

team. On 5 May 2015, he re-signed with the Titans on a 2-year contract to the end of 2017. On 8 July 2015, he played for the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

under-20s team against the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

under-20s team.

2016

In 2016, Lawton graduated to the Titans'

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by four ...

team,

Tweed Heads Seagulls The Tweed Heads Seagulls, often referred to simply as Tweed or Seagulls or Tweed Seagulls, is a rugby league club based in Tweed Heads, New South Wales. It is one of only two non-Queensland teams to play in the Queensland Cup, along with the ...

. In Round 17 of the

2016 NRL season The 2016 NRL season was the 109th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 19th season run by the National Rugby League. The season started in New Zealand with the annual Auckland Nines, and was followed by the All Stars Match, w ...

, he made his

debut for the Titans against the

. Joining his brother

as a first-grade player, they became the first set of brothers to play for the Titans at NRL level. His debut was cut short however, as he suffered a severe leg injury seven minutes into the second half. In September 2016, Lawton was arrested and charged with assault and destruction of property over an alleged family dispute. The charges were later dropped and Lawton was cleared.

2017

Playing 11 games for the club in 2017, Lawton geared up for one of his better years of Rugby League, scoring his first career try in the

Round 2 loss to the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

McDonald Jones Stadium Newcastle International Sports Centre, known as McDonald Jones Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose sports stadium located in Newcastle, Australia. The ground is home to the Newcastle Knights (National Rugby League) and Newcast ...

Newcastle and his second a month later in his sides other loss to the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

at home. Lawton finished his 2017 campaign with 2 tries to his name and 11 first grade games for the club.

2018

On 1 March, Lawton was given an immediate release from the final year of his contract with the Titans to take up a two-year deal with the

, exactly one week before the 2018 Telstra Premiership season commenced. Lawton debuted for the Warriors in Round 9 against the Tigers, scoring two tries, and played 6 games in all for the team this season, scoring 3 tries.

2019

Lawton's first game for the Warriors in the new season was on 11 May 2019, in round 9, when he came on the field from the bench for an "explosive" 20 minutes, helping the Warriors to a 26-18 comeback win against the

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

. Picked for every game from then, on 26 June it was announced that he had signed a two year contract extension with the Warriors, taking him up to the end of the 2021 season.

2020

Lawton played 18 games for New Zealand in the

2020 NRL season The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year. ; Notes : : : Pre-season ...

as the club missed out on the finals. On 21 December, Lawton suffered an Achilles injury at training which meant he would miss most of the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

2021

On 14 March,

Manly-Warringah The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

signed Lawton on a two-year deal. Lawton made his club debut for Manly-Warringah against Parramatta in round 11 of the

. He scored a try and was sent to the sin bin during Manly's 28-6 victory. Lawton played 16 games for Manly in the

including the club's preliminary final loss against South Sydney.

2022

In round 8 of the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season is the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest s ...

, Lawton was sent off for a dangerous lifting tackle in Manly's 40-22 loss against South Sydney. Lawton was later suspended for four matches over the incident. On 7 June, Lawton was ruled out for rest of the

with an ACL injury.

References

External links

New Zealand Warriors profileGold Coast Titans profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawton, Karl 1995 births Living people Australian rugby league players Burleigh Bears players Gold Coast Titans players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players New Zealand Warriors players Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Murwillumbah Tweed Heads Seagulls players