Joel Smith (born 3 May 1977) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er. Beginning his career in 1995 as a bright young prospect for St Kilda, Smith was touted as the future of the club. Smith played in St Kilda’s 1996 AFL Ansett Australia Cup winning side – the club's first AFL Cup win. He provided 3 good years of service before being incurring a serious

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

injury requiring

reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

late in the 1997 home and away season, missing the Saints' finals series. A contractual dispute meant he moved to

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

at the end of 1997. While he was injured all throughout 1998 and did not play a game, Hawthorn recognised this talent and kept him on the list. Smith made his return in the 1999 season and his role at the Hawks was as a running half-back, setting up attacking plays. He has been very successful playing this role throughout his career, and in 2001, won

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

selection and the

Peter Crimmins Medal The Peter Crimmins Medal is an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) from the Hawthorn Football Club deemed best and fairest for the season. Peter Crimmins was a rover for Hawthorn, playing from 1966 to 1975 It was also de ...

. He again won

selection in 2003, was vice captain in the 2005 season, and consistently finished in the top bunch of players in his club's best and fairest award. Smith retired at the end of the 2007 season, during which Hawthorn returned to the finals for the first time in 6 years, citing that the rapidly improving Hawthorn side was likely to mean reduced opportunities for him in 2008.

Statistics

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1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 4 , , 20 , , 6 , , 7 , , 190 , , 99 , , 289 , , 65 , , 25 , , 0.3 , , 0.4 , , 9.5 , , 5.0 , , 14.5 , , 3.3 , , 1.3 , , 1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 4 , , 22 , , 22 , , 22 , , 246 , , 122 , , 368 , , 96 , , 30 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 11.2 , , 5.5 , , 16.7 , , 4.4 , , 1.4 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 4 , , 16 , , 23 , , 17 , , 207 , , 94 , , 301 , , 63 , , 17 , , 1.4 , , 1.1 , , 12.9 , , 5.9 , , 18.8 , , 3.9 , , 1.1 , , 3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

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1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 17 , , 8 , , 12 , , 130 , , 58 , , 188 , , 34 , , 14 , , 0.5 , , 0.7 , , 7.6 , , 3.4 , , 11.1 , , 2.0 , , 0.8 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 17 , , 10 , , 5 , , 131 , , 77 , , 208 , , 52 , , 17 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 7.7 , , 4.5 , , 12.2 , , 3.1 , , 1.0 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 24 , , 0 , , 5 , , 315 , , 87 , , 402 , , 82 , , 33 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 13.1 , , 3.6 , , 16.8 , , 3.4 , , 1.4 , , 7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 5 , , 2 , , 2 , , 62 , , 18 , , 80 , , 19 , , 5 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 12.4 , , 3.6 , , 16.0 , , 3.8 , , 1.0 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 5 , , 6 , , 222 , , 92 , , 314 , , 76 , , 43 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 10.1 , , 4.2 , , 14.3 , , 3.5 , , 2.0 , , 3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 7 , , 2 , , 261 , , 106 , , 367 , , 73 , , 48 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 11.9 , , 4.8 , , 16.7 , , 3.3 , , 2.2 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 20 , , 4 , , 4 , , 233 , , 146 , , 379 , , 95 , , 24 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 11.7 , , 7.3 , , 19.0 , , 4.8 , , 1.2 , , 5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 19 , , 0 , , 1 , , 199 , , 115 , , 314 , , 111 , , 28 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 10.5 , , 6.1 , , 16.5 , , 5.8 , , 1.5 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 17 , , 3 , , 5 , , 147 , , 124 , , 271 , , 93 , , 28 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 8.6 , , 7.3 , , 15.9 , , 5.5 , , 1.6 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 221 ! 90 ! 88 ! 2343 ! 1138 ! 3481 ! 859 ! 312 ! 0.4 ! 0.4 ! 10.6 ! 5.1 ! 15.8 ! 3.9 ! 1.4 ! 23

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Joel 1977 births Living people All-Australians (AFL) Peter Crimmins Medal winners Hawthorn Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Murray Bushrangers players Yarrawonga Football Club players Australia international rules football team players