Joel Smith (footballer, Born 1996)
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Joel Smith (born 25 February 1996) is a professional
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 playing for the
Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...
in the
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL). A defender, tall and weighing , Smith plays primarily on the
half-back flank In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-back line refers to the positions of the 3 players on the field that occupy the centre half-back and left and right half-back flank positions. Centre half-back The role of the centre half-back ...
. He played Australian rules football at a young age before switching sports to
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
where he represented Australia at under-19 level. The son of former and player, Shaun Smith, he followed in his fathers footsteps when he was recruited by Melbourne in 2015 as a category B rookie. After spending his first AFL season playing in the reserves, he made his AFL debut in the opening round of the 2017 season.


Early life

Smith is the son of former and player, Shaun Smith. He played Australian rules football at a young age, playing with Taylors Lakes from under ten level, where he won two
best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...
s, before moving to the
Maribyrnong Park Football Club Maribyrnong Park Football Club is an Australian rules football club located 7 km north of Melbourne in the suburb of Moonee Ponds . The club was formed in 1980 from an amalgamation of Riverside Stars and Moonee Imperials football clubs who ...
for the under-16 season, he then switched sports to
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. He had a successful career in basketball where he represented Australia at under-19 level and played with the
Geelong Supercats Geelong Supercats is a NBL1 South club based in Geelong, Victoria. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is affiliated with Basketball Geelong and Geelong United Basketball. The Supercats play their home gam ...
in the South East Australian Basketball League in 2015.


AFL career

Smith was signed by the
Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...
in October 2015 as a category B rookie and was eligible to join Melbourne's list immediately as he hadn't been registered in an Australian rules football competition for at least three years. Smith played his first match of football for the 2016 season in the
Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFL) Development League playing for Melbourne's affiliate team, the
Casey Scorpions The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the "Demons" and formerly the "Scorpions", is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the Springvale Football Club and the Casey Scorpions ( ...
; after the one match in the development league, he was promoted to the VFL seniors for the fifty-six point win over at Olympic Park Oval in round two. After four matches in the VFL, he was sidelined for over two months due to a groin injury. After returning from injury to the VFL, he played the remainder of the season including the grand final loss against at
Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...
. Described as one of the standouts at training during the 2017 pre-season by ''AFL Media'' journalist, Ben Guthrie, Smith played in the opening two matches of the
JLT Community Series The 2017 JLT Community Series was the Australian Football League (AFL) pre-season competition played before the 2017 home and away season. It featured 27 matches across 25 days, which began on 16 February 2017 and ended on 12 March 2017. For t ...
. He was forced to miss the week three match against at
Domain Stadium Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the high ...
due to a toe injury. Despite the injury, he was promoted to the senior list in place of
Mitch King Mitch King (born May 5, 1986) is a former American football defensive end. He was signed by the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He played college football at Iowa. Early years King attended Burlington Community High School in ...
who was on the long-term injury list, and Smith subsequently made his debut in the thirty point win against at
Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...
in the opening round of the season. During the first quarter, he dislocated his shoulder and was forced to miss the remainder of the match. Smith was provisionally suspended in mid-October of 2023 after a drug-test sample he provided after the Demons' win over Hawthorn in round 23 returned a positive result for cocaine. In February 2024, Smith was accused of trafficking cocaine and is set to face a minimum two-year suspension.


Statistics

''Updated to the end of 2023''. , - ,
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2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
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2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
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2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
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2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
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2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...
, , , , 29 , 14 , , 11 , , 4 , , 59 , , 28 , , 87 , , 37 , , 32 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 4.2 , , 2.0 , , 6.2 , , 2.6 , , 2.3 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 42 !! 12 !! 6 !! 181 !! 132 !! 313 !! 100 !! 97 !! 0.2 !! 0.1 !! 4.3 !! 3.1 !! 7.4 !! 2.4 !! 2.3 Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Joel 1996 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Casey Demons players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Doping cases in Australian rules football Australian sportspeople in doping cases