Joel Wilkinson (born 29 November 1991) is an Australian sportsman who has played 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 ...

and

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

. He played 26 games as a defender 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), where he was one of the club's underage recruits and played in the club's first season in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. Known as one of the best pound for pound athletes, he set numerous records at the AFL combine, including the 20-metre sprint and repeat 30-metre sprint test. Switching codes with the aim of playing in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), he signed with the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

in February 2016. Wilkinson is a prominent

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

campaigner, alleging that

institutional racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organizati ...

ended his career in the AFL and lodging a racial discrimination complaint against the league with the

Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body fu ...

Early life

Born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Wilkinson is one of three children. He is of Nigerian descent through his father. At the age of four, his family settled on the Gold Coast, and instantly began pursuing an interest in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

. Although excelling in athletics, Wilkinson also represented the Gold Coast in

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. In 2008, he grew tired of the sports he had already tried and began playing

for his school

Palm Beach Currumbin High School Palm Beach Currumbin State High School is an independent public, co-educational, secondary school, located in the Gold Coast suburb of Palm Beach, in Queensland, Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment ...

, for the first time at 16 years of age. Although the school was predominantly known for its

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

program, Wilkinson elected to play Australian rules football. He studied Biomedical Science at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

Junior football

Wilkinson signed up to play for the Broadbeach Australian Football Club's under 18 team in 2009 and was chosen to represent the Gold Coast Stingrays in state competition later that year. He began playing senior football for Broadbeach in 2010 and in just his fourth game earned a nomination for the AFLQ Rising Star Award. He was also named state captain of the under 18 Queensland Scorpions squad that competed in the 2010 AFL Under 18 National Championships. At the conclusion of the 2010 season, Wilkinson was drafted as a Queensland zone selection by his hometown

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 ...

who were entering the professional

in 2011.

AFL career

Wilkinson made his professional debut for the

in round 14 of the

2011 AFL season The 2011 AFL season was the 115th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sev ...

, 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 ...

. He would be racially abused by Bulldogs player

Justin Sherman Justin Sherman (born 26 January 1987) is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Brisbane Lions and Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was recruited as the number 45 draft pick in the 2004 AFL draft from C ...

. In his second game in the AFL, he kicked his first goal, while playing against

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

at the

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco, Western Australia, Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood, ...

. While competing against Collingwood at the

MCG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the el ...

in 2012, Wilkinson was racially vilified by a Collingwood member in the stands. Wilkinson set many fitness records while at the Gold Coast Suns. Despite only being 186 cm, 86 kg and 21-years-old at the time, he set a bench press record of 160 kg (352 lbs) for three repetitions in 2013. He also set the 2 km time trial running record in 2013. During Wilkinson's AFL career he traveled to Arizona on three separate occasions from 2011 to 2013 for off-season training and was a standout in the high altitude drills. He was delisted by the Gold Coast Suns at the conclusion of the

2013 AFL season The 2013 AFL season was the 117th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

and was signed by the semi-professional

Northern Blues The Northern Bullants are a semi-professional Australian rules football club that currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The club, which is based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, plays its home games at Preston City Ov ...

for the 2014 VFL season in an attempt to be redrafted into the AFL.

Racism

In May 2018, Wilkinson made a formal complaint against the AFL in the

, with Wilkinson alleging that he was subjected to discrimination, vilification and harassment on both racial, sexual and religious grounds by AFL staff, the Gold Coast Suns, club officials and teammates, as well as opposition players and spectators during his AFL career. In June 2020, Wilkinson revealed that he removed himself from the legal proceedings towards the end of 2019, as he was being pushed into settlement with a non-disclosure agreement; Wilkinson felt it was an unjust process and that he needed to protect the truth. In February 2021, Wilkinson stated that his career ended due to being "racially blackballed from the league", and that the Australian Human Rights Commission complaints process involved "blatant conflict of interest, corruption, and continued racial abuse with no accountability".

Statistics

, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 38 , , 7 , , 1 , , 0 , , 38 , , 46 , , 84 , , 21 , , 26 , , 0.14 , , – , , 5.43 , , 6.57 , , 12.00 , , 3.00 , , 3.71 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 38 , , 9 , , 0 , , 0 , , 38 , , 38 , , 76 , , 27 , , 23 , , – , , – , , 4.22 , , 4.22 , , 8.44 , , 3.00 , , 2.56 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 38 , , 10 , , 0 , , 0 , , 54 , , 62 , , 116 , , 19 , , 23 , , – , , – , , 5.40 , , 6.20 , , 11.60 , , 1.90 , , 2.30 , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 26 ! 1 ! 0 ! 130 ! 146 ! 276 ! 67 ! 72 ! 0.04 ! 0.00 ! 5.00 ! 5.62 ! 10.62 ! 2.58 ! 2.77

NFL career

Arizona Cardinals

Wilkinson abruptly announced his retirement from Australian rules football in July 2015, stating his intentions to pursue a career in

. Following his announcement, in August 2015, Wilkinson moved to

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

in an attempt to secure a tryout with an NFL team. The

allowed Wilkinson to tryout twice for the position of

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

in early 2016. Wilkinson signed an official contract with the Cardinals on 16 February 2016. Wilkinson stated after his signing that the cornerback position was very similar to what he played in the AFL.

New York Giants

In May 2017, Wilkinson attended the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

mini camp as a defensive back.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Joel 1991 births Living people Gold Coast Football Club players Northern Bullants players Sportspeople from the Gold Coast, Queensland Australian rules footballers from the Gold Coast, Queensland Australian people of Nigerian descent Australian players of American football American football cornerbacks Arizona Cardinals players Australian rules footballers that played in the NFL People educated at Palm Beach Currumbin State High School