Joel Selwood, Australian footballer

Joel Anthony Selwood (born 26 May 1988) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a triple premiership player, a six-time All-Australian, and three-time captain of the All-Australian team. Selwood has captained Geelong since 2012, is Geelong's games record holder, and has won the Carji Greeves Medal three times as Geelong's best and fairest player.

A standout junior track and field athlete and footballer, Selwood entered top-level football early, joining the TAC Cup competition as a bottom-aged player. His accomplishments as a junior included Most Valuable Player awards at state and international levels, and selection in the All-Australian and TAC Cup Team of the Year sides. A potential top pick in the 2006 AFL Draft, Selwood sustained a serious knee injury during his final year of junior football that caused him to fall to Geelong's first pick at seventh overall. Selwood made his AFL debut in 2007, winning the AFL Rising Star Award and AFLPA Best First-Year Player Award. He set a VFL/AFL record with a 92% winning percentage in his first 50 games (46–4), and was a member of three premiership teams with Geelong in his first five seasons (2007, 2009, and 2011), the last of which as vice captain. With Selwood as captain of the team since 2012, Geelong have made the finals in all but one season. They have played in six Preliminary Finals in that span, but have not had success at that stage, only reaching one Grand Final in 2020 that they lost to Richmond.

Selwood has been recognized for his leadership abilities, his high levels of courage, and his consistency through most of his career. He was appointed captain at just age 23, and has won the AFLPA Best Captain Award. He is a four-time recipient of the AFLPA Robert Rose Most Courageous Player Award. He has played in 20 games every full season of his career, and averaged over 24 disposals per game over his career, including at least 20 disposals in every full season except his debut year. He polled double-digit Brownlow votes for 11 consecutive seasons, including 27 votes in 2013 when he was runner-up for the award. Selwood excels at breaking tackles and earning free kicks. He also averages about five tackles per game and has the most tackles in VFL/AFL history.