Joel Jeffrey (born 12 March 2002) 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who plays for the

Gold Coast Football Club The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The ...

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).

Early life

Jeffrey was born into a Darwin-based family of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

descent from the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

( Wulwulam) and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

(

Kukatj The Kukatj are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula in the state of Queensland. They are to be distinguished from the Kukatja of Western Australia and the Luritja of the Northern Territory, who have also historically been k ...

). His father, Russell, was a professional Australian rules footballer who played at the highest level for St Kilda before relocating to the Gold Coast to continue his

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

career with the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

. Following his retirement, Russell returned to Darwin to play for Wanderers and coached Palmerston to back-to-back NTFL premierships in 2001–02. He was inducted into the AFLNT Hall of Fame in 2010. Joel began playing junior football for Palmerston and later switched to the

Wanderers Football Club The Wanderers Football Club, nicknamed, Eagles, is an Australian rules football club, currently playing in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL). The club was formed in 1916 as a founding member of the NTFL. It has produced Australian ...

where he made his Men's Premier League debut for the club in 2018 at 16 years of age. In June 2019, at 17 years of age, Jeffrey made his senior NEAFL debut for the NT Thunder at

TIO Stadium Marrara Oval, currently known as TIO Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Marrara, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. With a seating capacity of 12,215, the ground is the largest stadium in the Nort ...

and kicked a goal in his first game. He was also selected to represent the Allies at the

2019 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2019 NAB AFL Under-18 Championships was the 24th edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships, AFL Under-18 Championships. The tournament was played between five teams—The Allies (Australian rules football), Allies, South Australian state ...

as a bottom ager and intended to relocate to the Gold Coast in 2020 to take part in the Gold Coast Suns Academy program on a full-time basis until the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

eliminated that possibility. In December 2020, Jeffrey was drafted to the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

via their academy access.

AFL career

Jeffrey spent the first half of the 2021 season playing for Gold Coast in the VFL and notably kicked a winning goal after the siren to defeat 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 ...

after marking the ball one handed with seconds to go in the game. He impressed again a month later with a 9-goal, best on ground performance in the VFL, which earned him an

debut the following week against the

Melbourne Demons The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

Metricon Stadium Carrara Stadium (also known as People First Stadium under naming rights) is a stadium on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Carrara, Queensland, Carrara. The stadium is primarily used for A ...

. In his sixth AFL game, Jeffrey remarkably kicked five goals against the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

, which included a Goal of the Year nomination that involved an intercept and a snap over his head. He was awarded a

2022 AFL Rising Star The NAB AFL Rising Star award is given annually to a standout young player in the Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules footba ...

nomination for his performance. Jeffrey was a member of the team in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) which won the 2022 VFL Grand Final over . When head coach

Damien Hardwick Damien Patrick Hardwick (born 18 August 1972) is a current Australian rules football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League. He is the former senior coach of the Richmond Football ...

arrived at the Suns, Jeffrey found himself in a new role, playing as a rebounding medium defender. A successful shift, he played a career-best 12 AFL games in the 2024 season. He collected a personal best 29 disposals in round 13 against . In 2025, Jeffrey was awarded with representative honours in the Indigenous All-Stars team which played against in February, following in the footsteps of father Russell who played in the same team 31 years prior.

Statistics

:''Statistics are correct to the end of 2024'' , - ,

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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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 ...

, , , , 40 , 12 , , 1 , , 2 , , 132 , , 67 , , 199 , , 44 , , 14 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 11.0 , , 5.6 , , 16.6 , , 3.7 , , 1.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 28 !! 16 !! 13 !! 245 !! 96 !! 341 !! 83 !! 49 !! 0.6 !! 0.5 !! 8.8 !! 3.4 !! 12.2 !! 3.0 !! 1.8

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffrey, Joel 2002 births Living people Gold Coast Football Club players Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football 21st-century Indigenous Australian people Australian rules footballers from Darwin, Northern Territory