Past Joel Patfull (2005-2014)

Looking at the video on the Lions website the highlights remind me of watching Harry Taylor. Hopefully with more confidence Joel can continue to his job defensively plus take more of those intercept marks.
 
Consistency steers defender Joel Patfull towards Best and Fairest award with the Lions
September 08, 2012
Greg Davis

OVERLOOKED at the national draft as an 18-year-old and unwanted by Port Adelaide as a rookie, Brisbane Lions defender Joel Patfull was crowned the new King of the Jungle at the Gabba last night.

Patfull, 27, won Brisbane's best-and-fairest award, the Merrett-Murray Medal, after a consistent season in which he was the mainstay of the backline.

Patfull polled 34 votes to pip midfielder Daniel Rich, who finished with 32. Irishman Pearce Hanley was third with 28.5 and captain Jonathan Brown and Jack Redden tied for fourth on 28.

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Congrats Joel. Finally reeping his deserved rewards for persaverence
 
Moments of 2012
1 October 2012

Patfull Club Champion
Joel Patfull became the first Lions defender since Justin Leppitsch in 1999 to receive the Club’s highest individual honour - the Merrett-Murray Medal - at the Club Champion dinner at the Gabba. Patfull proved a popular winner, having rarely been beaten by his opponent all season.
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And 70% of people reckon that's overrating him!

Learn about footy already you morons!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Joel Patfull 2012 End of Season Review
by patfullfankezz

2011 review

Senior games: 22
Goals: 0
Dreamteam: 1112
Supercoach: 1401
Club Best and Fairest votes: 34 (1st)

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Image (2012 preseason) courtesy of Mr Ripper

Ah, the great Joelly Patfull, the underrated, unappreciated, unsung hero of the Lions defence. Hard-working and consistent, the Underrated One never seemed to get the deserved limelight, but has finally gotten his just reward for his immeasurable hard work in becoming the 2012 Merrett-Murray Medal winner. In this fans eyes, it's about time! To me, he's always been an inspiration. With the fangasming now out of the way, let's get into this review!

2010 and 2011 weren't highlights of Joel's career. In 2010, Joel's DE was only 76%, which improved in 2011 to 80%. His average disposals dropped from 2010 from 10.6 to 9.1 per game, while his rebounds from defensive 50 stayed at 1.9 per game. Note this last statistic well, as a huge criticism of his game was his lack of attack. Also note the interesting statistic known as the one percenter. Joel was only averaging 4.3 per game in 2010, and 5.8 per game in 2011. And if Joel wasn't feeling bad enough, he broke his hand against Adelaide in round 20 of 2011. I remember asking him about it at that years Club Champion dinner, he was a bit bummed out as he was thinking he was going to have a good game that day. People were suggesting the poor boy was trade bait, and many agreed he was not premiership material.

With that all in mind, let's look at 2012. His positives include going up to 11.6 disposals per game at 81.3% accuracy. And those rebounds from 50? Up to 2.4 a game, which if my math serves me correctly is roughly a 26% improvement. Add to that, he's averaging 7 one percenters a game (things like sheperds, spoils and so on), for a 17% improvement, which roughly adds up to a 21.5% improvement on how he helps us attack out of defence. He's also tackling more, which last time I checked, didn't help the opposition much. One thing a lot of people might not have noticed, but there have been a number of times Joel has been named as a defender, only for me to look for him and find him in the forward 50! Which means he's dragging his poor opponent up the ground with him, and providing an option if we need one (not that he ever gets used, but it's the thought that counts, right?).

Now for the negative, and boy, do these things really tick me off! Joel, is it REALLY necessary to give away so many frees?! Particularly early in the season, when it seemed we'd have to change the meaning of Patfullation to mean “Getting caught with ones pants down with ball in hand”. For a veteran of over 100 games and 7 seasons, that's just not on, especially when you consider he's a fourth generation player – he's bred not to give those away! Oh sure, one could argue that his newfound endeavour to the ball means he's giving more away, but I'm not buying it. Thankfully he's cleaned that up towards the tail of the season, otherwise I would have throttled him (if I could reach that high...). A few times he's been found wanting at contests too, he seems to be content to jump up with everyone else for a spoil without doing his own crumbing (except for against Adelaide, there was one contest in the 2nd quarter with a minute and a half to go where he crumbed Daniel Merrett beautifully), and a few times gets caught well behind his opponent. Not major in contrast to how well the rest of his game is, but some things to look at.

Let's look at his best and worst games. He's done brilliantly in losing sides, like keeping Pavlich to 1 goal against Freo (and making him look like more of a dill than his nose ever did), keeping Posiadly goalless (admittedly in poor conditions for a forward), and pantsying Riewoldt (the tissues flowed that night). While overshadowed when the team is playing well, he still managed to have good showings against Adelaide (3.47 mark of the 3rd quarter – look it up!), Q-Clash 4 (managed to get loose in the first quarter, admittedly after that everyone turned up the suckage) and Port (especially after that nasty shock to the ribs).

Worst games? The Sydney game for a start. Goodes pretty much made Joel look like he wasn't putting in an effort. Still, Joel managed 16 disposals in that game and none were clangers, so it wasn't all bad I guess. It pales when you think of how he let his opponent run wild though. His game against Collingwood was forgettable, and the Essendon game where he was played up forward reminded us why he was put in the backline in the first place – hell he didn't even score until a trial in the midfield against the Crows, and even that was only a behind!

So, Joel can take heart in his improved attacking performance and the fact that 99% of his opponents still hide under the bed when they hear the name “Patfull”. However, he needs to get on top of his bogey opponents and stop giving away silly frees. Overall, I'd say Joel has gotten back to what he's good at, which is being the glue in our defence. He needs to keep on the improve to stay in the best 22, but currently looks to be a key in our next flag tilt. If all goes well, he'll hit game 150 in round 11 next year, and in 2014 he can look to be the player to play the most games in the number 24 for us, beating Roger Merrett at 164 games.

So, with all that said, congratulations on winning the Clubs highest individual honour Joel, you deserve it. Now go out there and raise the bar again in 2013!

And his opponents? PATFULLATED.
 
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