Joel Jeffrey

Start of Season

Joel Jeffrey (born 12 March 2002) is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL)

Jeffrey was born into a Darwin-based family of Indigenous Australian descent from the Northern Territory (Wulwulam) and Queensland (Kukatj). 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 career with the Brisbane Bears. Following his retirement, Russell returned to Darwin to play for Wanderers and was inducted into the AFLNT Hall of Fame in 2010.

Joel began playing junior football for Wanderers and made his Men's Premier League debut for the club in 2018 at 16 years of age. In December 2020, Jeffrey was drafted to the Gold Coast Suns via their academy pre-selection access.

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 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 AFL debut the following week against the Melbourne Demons at Metricon Stadium.