Joel Smith (born 25 February 1996) is a former professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). The son of former and player Shaun Smith, he followed in his father's footsteps when he was recruited by Melbourne in 2015 as a category B rookie.
Smith played Australian rules football with Taylors Lakes from the under-10 level, where he won two best and fairest awards, before moving to the Maribyrnong Park Football Club for the under-16 season. He then switched sports to basketball and had a successful career, representing Australia at under-19 level and playing with the Geelong Supercats in the South East Australian Basketball League in 2015.
Smith was signed by the Melbourne Football Club in October 2015 as a category B rookie and was eligible to join Melbourne's list immediately as he hadn't been registered in an Australian rules football competition for at least three years. He played his first match in the 2016 season in the Victorian Football League (VFL) Development League for Melbourne's affiliate team, the Casey Scorpions; after one match in the development league, he was promoted to the VFL seniors in a 56-point win over at Olympic Park Oval in round two. After four matches in the VFL, he was sidelined for over two months due to a groin injury. After returning from injury to the VFL, he played the remainder of the season including the grand final loss against at Etihad Stadium.
Described as one of the standouts at training during the 2017 pre-season by AFL Media journalist Ben Guthrie, Smith played in the opening two matches of the JLT Community Series. He was forced to miss the week-three match against at Domain Stadium due to a toe injury. Despite the injury, he was promoted to the senior list in place of Mitch King, who was on the long-term injury list, and made his debut in a 30-point win against at Etihad Stadium in the opening round of the season. During the first quarter, he dislocated his shoulder and was forced to miss the remainder of the match.
Smith was provisionally suspended in mid-October 2023 after a drug-test sample he provided after the Demons' win over Hawthorn in round 23 returned a positive result for cocaine. In February 2024, he was accused of trafficking cocaine and was set to face a minimum two-year suspension.
On 1 November 2024, Smith was delisted by the Melbourne Football Club after receiving a four-year and three month ban in connection with five Anti-Doping Violations. SmithâÂÂs suspension was agreed upon by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), and the AFL with Smith. Under the terms of the suspension, Smith is prohibited from participating in any sports that have adopted a World Anti-Doping Code compliant anti-doping policy until 9 January 2028.
Updated to the end of 2024.
|- | 2017 || || 44 | 3 || 0 || 0 || 12 || 14 || 26 || 2 || 8 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 4.0 || 4.7 || 8.7 || 0.7 || 2.7 |- | 2018 || || 44 | 8 || 1 || 2 || 46 || 48 || 94 || 29 || 31 || 0.1 || 0.3 || 5.8 || 6.0 || 11.8 || 3.6 || 3.9 |- | 2019 || || 44 | 0 || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â || â |- | 2020 || || 44 | 7 || 0 || 0 || 23 || 15 || 38 || 9 || 10 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 3.3 || 2.1 || 5.4 || 1.3 || 1.4 |- | 2021 || || 44 | 3 || 0 || 0 || 11 || 9 || 20 || 9 || 4 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 3.7 || 3.0 || 6.7 || 3.0 || 1.3 |- | 2022 || || 44 | 7 || 0 || 0 || 30 || 18 || 48 || 14 || 12 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 4.3 || 2.6 || 6.9 || 2.0 || 1.7 |- | 2023 || || 29 | 14 || 11 || 4 || 59 || 28 || 87 || 37 || 32 || 0.8 || 0.3 || 4.2 || 2.0 || 6.2 || 2.6 || 2.3 |- | 2024 || || 29 | colspan="15" | Banned for the 2024 season |- class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 | Career ! 42 !! 12 !! 6 !! 181 !! 132 !! 313 !! 100 !! 97 !! 0.2 !! 0.1 !! 4.3 !! 3.1 !! 7.4 !! 2.4 !! 2.3
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