Joel Smith St.Kilda Career

[guitars4]

Hawthorn player is how i remember him.

The boy could play but I'm with you Judson a Hawthorn player

[Enrico_Misso]

If I remember correctly we offered him stuff all because the injury would keep him out a season.

Hawks offered him heaps with multiple years.

We said goodbye and got nothing. Well, I don’t remember getting anything myself.

We are not very good at decision making sometimes.

We offered him a one year contract on modest salary as the concern was he wouldn't play again at the same level.
Hawthorn rolled the dice and offered him (I think) 2 years on higher pay.

[jaxons]

If I remember correctly we offered him stuff all because the injury would keep him out a season.

Hawks offered him heaps with multiple years.

We said goodbye and got nothing. Well, I don’t remember getting anything myself.

We are not very good at decision making sometimes.

We offered him a one year contract on modest salary as the concern was he wouldn't play again at the same level.
Hawthorn rolled the dice and offered him (I think) 2 years on higher pay.

Was St.Kilda's fault entirely not Joel's, that he left to go to Hawthorn.
He desperately wanted to stay but was treated like crap with a pathetic contract offer after he did his knee and had no choice.
Mismanagement at its finest.
If he didn't do his knee in 1997 would have ended up one of the greatest St.Kilda players of our time.
Even worse he walked for free and we got nothing in return and went on to become an All Australian at Hawthorn as mentioned earlier in this thread.

[minneapolis]

That first game on the highlights reel against Caaaaarlton was a spectacular come from behind win featuring 3 kids with very ordinary names ...
Smith, Jones and Brown.

Ordinary names, but their emergence was a precursor to our subsequent rise in 97.

I used to call them the The Accountants.

[Saintmatt]

Think Osborne fell over him about 4 weeks before 1997 finals. With a year out and out of contract, Hawthorn cut our grass. One of around 15 reasons we lost 1997 Grand Final.

His injury was the start of a run of 4 significant injuries that cost us the 97 flag, Joel was immense for us. He was the classy ball user off half back with Matty Young. Glided across the turf and could kick both feet beautifully and was the conduit between high defence and attack. Him, Young and Aussie Jones just slotted Buckets and Heater all year.

Smith went down. Lazar on a wet a Sunday night in the last round against PA; then Spida in the QF against Bris; Matty Young late in the PF.

Didn't play HB for us in 97 as far as I remember.

He absolutely did at times - mainly at half-forward but also, at half back. He actually felt more comfortable there and it was his suggestion to the Hawks to play him there when he came back from the knee.. He was actually playing at half back (on Richard Osborne) the day the knee happened.

Didn't the injury happen in the St Kilda forward pocket in our forward line?

If you watch the last couple of minutes he seems to be playing forward, but the injury happens in Collingwood’s forward line.

Correct. Towards the end of 97 - Joel did have a license to roam. Stan actually worked out that he was useful everywhere and he’d got himself fit enough after groin injuries.

[Enrico_Misso]

That first game on the highlights reel against Caaaaarlton was a spectacular come from behind win featuring 3 kids with very ordinary names ...
Smith, Jones and Brown.

Ordinary names, but their emergence was a precursor to our subsequent rise in 97.

That was a midweek Ansett Cup game.
I was playing basketball at Albert Park that night against a team representing Ajax. Only one player turned up from the opposition. It seems all the rest had gone to Waverley.
We had the option to play a scratch match or get a refund and go home. We had a couple of Saints fans too so we chose the latter option. We were about 7 goals down when I got home but it was all good news from there.

Shame you missed it Kosi.
It was one of the most enjoyable games I have seen.
Only a pre-season game but for the first time since the devastation of Plugger's departure the future suddenly looked quite bright.

I went with a couple of Caaarlton mates who then met up with another group of their mates, some of whom were very vocal and critical of StKilda for 2 and a half quarters.
It was a miserable miserable night and I'm pretty sure the margin was well over 50 points.

Then it began to turn.
We got a few before 3/4 time to give us a vague chance.
Then we chipped away at them in the last quarter only hitting the front late in the game.

Would love to see a replay of that second half - McAdam05 come in please!
I'm pretty sure one of those critical last quarter goals was the result of passes between Smith/Brown/Jones (the three accountants as someone aptly dubbed them).

Meanwhile those Caaaarlton A'holes got very quiet and I was able to give several of them a warm cheerio as they walked out with a minute to go.

A hot March night that laid the seeds for 97.

[kosifantutti]

[Enrico_Misso]

Many thanks Kosi for that memory refresh.

What a great game (even if we came from 43 points behind as opposed to the 50+ points I reported above).
What exciting running, attacking footy.
No switching back then.

Whatever became of Dean Matthews?
And couldn't we used a hard nut like Rod Keogh today.

The composure of the young Smith to kick the winning goal sums up the reason for our collective angst in this thread!

[evertonfc]

We gifted Smith and Guerra to Hawthorn and they played another 300+ games between them.

Truly, sometimes we just hand premierships out to others.

[Sainternist]

Loved Joel Smith in his days with the Saints. The Smith & Jones combo was our future after Lockett left. Was at the MCG vs Collingwood the day in 1997 when Joel did his knee, which ultimately was his last game for St.KIlda. After losing the GF, the news of his departure from the club only felt like insult to injury.

Why was he cut loose? According to Stan Alves he had an attitude problem, but we never heard a different side to the story.

[SaintPav]

What’s with the Arial font jumper numbers?!

Yeah, Nah!