Joel Amartey (born 2 September 1999) is an

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who plays for the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) after the St. Kilda saints chose not to match an NGA bid on him. He was recruited by the

with the 28th draft pick in the 2018 AFL rookie draft.

Early football

Amartey was born in Australia to a father who had migrated from

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. As a child, he played soccer, but quit after experiencing racial abuse, moving instead to basketball and later to Australian rules. He played junior football for the

Beaumaris Football Club The Beaumaris Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris. As of 2024, the club competes in the Premier B division of the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) and ...

in the South Metro Junior Football League, alongside many of his future teammates at the Swans such as Callum Sinclair and

Oliver Florent Oliver Florent (born 22 July 1998) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted by the Sydney Swans with their first selection and eleventh overall in the 20 ...

. Amartey and Florent also played football together on the same school team at Mentone Grammar. He played for the

Sandringham Dragons Sandringham Dragons is an Australian rules football club playing in the Talent League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They are based at the Moorabbin Oval in Moorabbin, Victoria, representin ...

in the

NAB League The Talent League (also known as the Coates Hire, Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the National Australia Bank, NAB League and Transport Accident Commission, TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representa ...

, playing 14 games and kicking 9 goals over the course of the 2017 season. Amartey had the opportunity to win the grand final for the Dragons in their premiership match against the

Geelong Falcons The Geelong Falcons is a youth Australian rules football representative club in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition in Victoria, Australia. The club takes in talented junior players from the Geelong, Colac and Warr ...

as he marked in front of goal with seconds left, meaning he had to kick a goal after the siren. However, he missed the shot, and the Dragons lost by two points.

AFL career

Amartey was likely to make his AFL debut in July 2020, but suffered a groin injury in a scratch match and was unable to debut for the Swans. Amartey debuted in 's 32 point loss to in the 17th round of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...

. On debut, Amartey collected 3 disposals, 8 hitouts, and 2 tackles. Amartey was upgraded from the rookie list at the conclusion of the season. In Round 5 of the

2023 AFL season The 2023 AFL season was the 127th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 16 March to 30 September, comprising a 23-m ...

Amartey pulled his hamstring while running towards the forward line. Amartey immediately got subbed out of the game. In

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, he scored a career best 9 goals during the last three quarters of Sydney's Round 14 clash against the Adelaide Crows.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of round 4, 2025''. , - ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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2020 The year 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 even ...

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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, , , , 36 , 25 , , 43 , , 26 , , 139 , , 54 , , 193 , , 79 , , 49 , , 9 , , 1.7 , , 1.0 , , 5.6 , , 2.2 , , 7.8 , , 3.2 , , 2.0 , , 0.4 , - ,

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

, , , , 36 , 4 , , 9 , , 4 , , 25 , , 10 , , 35 , , 18 , , 8 , , 9 , , 2.3 , , 1.0 , , 6.3 , , 2.5 , , 8.8 , , 4.5 , , 2.0 , , 2.3 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 57 !! 82 !! 51 !! 312 !! 134 !! 446 !! 183 !! 121 !! 139 !! 1.4 !! 0.9 !! 5.5 !! 2.4 !! 7.9 !! 3.2 !! 2.1 !! 2.4

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amartey, Joel 1999 births Living people Sydney Swans players Australian people of Ghanaian descent Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Sandringham Dragons players Sportsmen from Victoria (state) People from Beaumaris, Victoria People educated at Mentone Grammar School 21st-century Australian sportsmen