Now, the champion footballer and stolen generations survivor says his latest visit to Alice Springs has brought a breakthrough.

“Since this last trip we have found some interesting facts and some of them are not the most pleasant,” he said.

Mr Morey, an Arrernte man originally from the Red Centre capital, was playing on the banks of the Todd River when he was snatched away from his mum by authorities when he was about seven years old.

His name was changed by authorities, who shipped him off to St Mary’s, south of Alice Springs, he said.

While he’s never seen his mum since, he’s also never given up hope he will find out what happened to her, and where she’s been laid to rest.

Sonny’s search: From SA to the Red Centre

Mr Morey, now 80, said as he was taken so young, he barely remembered his mother Nancy Pununga.

“When you’re that age, you don’t really take much notice of your mother because you’re too busy running around with your cousins and your mates and playing games,” he said.

“But from talking to my relatives, she was a willowy, slim lady – that’s about all I can remember.”

The only photograph he has of her is from 1943, which shows her with one of her cousins.

In 1958, Mr Morey was taken from Alice Springs to St Francis House boarding school in Adelaide, where he boarded alongside Charlie Perkins, Vince Copley, John Moriarty, and Gordon Briscoe.

He wouldn’t return to Alice Springs in search of his mum until the 1970s, he said, a move which put him on a path to an unexpected discovery: he had a half sister he didn’t know about.

“It was a shock – I knew I had brothers,” he said.

Mr Morey would meet Phyllis Gorey by the Todd River, a moment etched in his mind, but which also opened another door to follow, through which he is now searching for more family.

“I think a lot of my family’s also spread throughout the nation now because, as you know, people can move around,” he said.

“It’s quite intriguing and interesting – like it’s sort of an unfinished business.”

How footy got him so close, but so far

In South Australia, Mr Morey is best remembered for his time on the field with Central Districts Football Club, who he played 213 games for.

He’s been runner up to the Margery Medal – beaten out by Malcolm Blight – and also represented SA.

In 2024, he was named the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Round honouree, in a move which left him in disbelief.

“I was surprised first, but initially when I received the correspondence, I said ‘hey, they got the wrong bloke here’,” he recalls with a laugh.

Despite all the accolades, there was a feeling of “something missing”, Mr Morey said.

Through his footy, he also returned to Alice Springs – potentially at the same time his mum was still in town.

But he doesn’t dwell on this, remarking how footy trips like the one he was on were “too organised” and left him no time for the search.

“You know, you have to go there with the team, and the next day we flew to Adelaide,” he said.

“That’s the way the whole thing worked.”

False leads were also in abundance – but not from people trying to deliberately misguide him, Mr Morey said.

As memories fade with age, information becomes harder to verify.

Yet a real lead came from a French nun, named Sister Megali, who worked at the mission as a 20 year old.

“She said to me ‘I was looking for a ghost’ … I said ‘what do you mean?’” Mr Morey recalls.

“She said ‘well nobody knew who you were’.”

The Sister explained to him how when he was taken, the ‘g’ in his name was changed to an ‘m’.

Mr Morey is the son of a white Irish station owner called Tom Gorey, a discovery which led to him tracking a John Gorey in America.

But it led to “legal issues” which Mr Morey said he was reluctant to discuss as “I don’t want to upset anyone”.

However, his meeting with Sister Megali, who now resides in Adelaide, proved fruitful: he found out his mum never stopped searching for him — further inspiration to continue the search.

Napperby: The best lead yet

After close to 30 trips to Alice Springs, Mr Morey said the search took him back to South Australia, with what could be the strongest lead yet.

He’d tracked down his mother’s date of birth and that she was working at Napperby Station, where she is believed to be buried in a plot somewhere.

But exactly where was still a mystery, said Mr Morey, who only knows “roughly” where she’s buried.

“The traditional way of the burial, you wouldn’t know where they were buried; they were taken out and that was it,” he said.

While it seems like he might have exhausted all avenues in Alice Springs, Mr Morey said he still planned to return to the town.

“It’s where I was, well, roughly where I was born. My people, the Arrernte people, they’re all part of the land … I just like coming back and spiritually cleansing myself in that sense,” he said.

And as for mum, he’ll never stop searching until he’s found her final resting place.

“I think she deserves a little bit because what they’ve done to her was horrific,” he said.

While closure is compelling him in his search, Mr Morey said it was not his only motivation.

“My grandkids and my kids and great grandkids – they can travel there (to her grave) and they know who they are, they can go ‘this is our family links here’,” he said.