Joel Patfull sits proudly on the Brisbane Lions Honour Board as one of 10 multiple winners of the coveted Merrett/Murray Medal. He won the club’s top award in 2012-13 in the ultimate retort to an opposition club that drafted him in 2002 and dumped him two years later without a game.
It was Port Adelaide, who axed the then rookie soon after they‘d beaten Brisbane in the 2004 grand final to end the club’s 2001-02-03 premiership rein.
Twenty years on, as the Lions head to Adelaide Oval to meet Port on Saturday night, Patfull is one half of a double delisting by the Power that turned into a double win for Brisbane.
Originally from suburban Payneham in Adelaide, Patfull, now living in Sydney, had been drafted by Port from SANFL club Norwood with pick #14 in a talent-laden 2002 rookie draft.
In the same first round Hawthorn picked up 200-game dual premiership player and club champion Brad Sewell at #7, North claimed 275-gamer Michael Firrito at #10 and at #15 Collingwood grabbed 208-game premiership captain Nick Maxwell.
The 2003 AFL Guide described a then 18-year-old Patfull as “a hard-working forward who impressed with his multiple efforts and high work-rate, and was a strong one-grab mark and a clever opportunist”.
Ironically, the Power’s other rookie pick-up that year was his 21-year-old Norwood clubmate and All-Australian Under 18 choice Scott Borlace, now the Lions Head of Player Development.
But with the Power riding the crest of their biggest wave in the AFL, neither wore their teal colors at the highest level.
Patfull quickly found a second home in Brisbane when drafted by the Lions at pick #56 in the 2005 National Draft. As fate would have it, he debuted in Round 8 2006 against Port at Football Park and became a remarkably resilient and consistent figure primarily in defence, playing 182 of a possible 193 games in nine years.
He was top 10 in the B&F four times in five years from 2007-11, and after beating Daniel Rich by two votes in 2012 and Pearce Hanley by one vote in 2013 he was third behind Tom Rockliff and Dayne Zorko in 2014 ahead of a surprise switch to GWS in 2015.
Borlace, also an Australian age cricket representative, was delisted by the Power at the end of 2003 and was a delayed win for Brisbane. He won Port’s SANFL best & fairest in ‘04, won the Fos Williams Medal as South Australia’s best player against the VFL in ’05 and was SA captain in ’06 against WA before an injury-forced retirement in February 2010.
He worked with the Lions Academy from 2012-15 and was a development coach under Justin Leppitsch in 2015-16 before taking charge of the development program.
Patfull and Borlace are part of a Lions-Power history that goes back to the Power’s entry to the AFL in 1997 – the first season of the ‘new’ post-merger Brisbane Lions.
The Lions enjoy a 21-2-19 record from 42 games against the Power – 15-2-6 at the Gabba and 6-13 in Adelaide. Before losing the 2004 grand final to Port the Lions beat them in the finals on their way to the flag in 2001-02.
Brisbane are 6-4 against Port under Chris Fagan – 5-1 at the Gabba and 1-3 at Adelaide Oval.
The Lions have more than returned the Patfull favor, with eight of nine common players between the clubs starting at Brisbane.
Fabian Francis, a 22-gamer with the Brisbane Bears in 1993-94 and stepfather to current Power midfielder Jason Horne-Francis, was the first to play for both clubs when he was part of the Power’s first season in 1997.
Aaron Shattock, a 2002 Brisbane premiership player, joined Port in 2005, and was followed by Tom Logan (2006), Scott Harding (2010), Jared Polec (2014), ex-Brisbane captain Rockliff (2018), Sam Mayes (2020) and Sam Skinner (2022).
The only common player to travel the opposite direction was Adam Heuskes, another Norwood product when played 27 games with Sydney from 1994-96 and 37 games with Port from 1997-98 before joining Brisbane in Leigh Matthews’ first season in 1999.
He played all 25 games in ’99, finishing equal fifth in the B&F, and 12 of the first 13 games in 2000, missing one through suspension. But after injury sidelined him for five weeks he played once in the reserves and then kicked two goals in a 90-point Round 21 Gabba win over St Kilda. And that was it.
With the Lions seventh on the ladder and bound for the finals, he failed to show up at the recovery session the following morning, and never returned. He informed the club of his retirement from interstate, having played his 125th and last game at 24.
Simon Black and Jonathan Brown have played most games between the clubs with 22, ahead of teammates Jason Akermanis (20), Nigel Lappin (19), Michael Voss (18) and Daniel Bradshaw (18), and Port’s Travis Boak (18).
Brownlow Medal votes in games between the clubs favour Brisbane 121-107, with Brown and Luke Power (10) heading the count from Akermanis (9), Black (8) and Lachie Neale (7).
Boak, the former Port captain games record-holder perhaps playing against Brisbane for the last time this week, heads the Power vote with eight from Ollie Wines (7), Robbie Gray (6), Jarrad Schofield (6) and Charlie Dixon (5).
Black and Lappin (4) and Power (3) have had most 30-possession games for Brisbane against Port, while Boak heads the overall list with five. Neale, with 42 possessions in a Lions win at the Gabba in 2019, owns the individual possession record between the clubs.
Brown has been easily the rivalry’s most prolific goal-kicker, with seven hauls of four-plus include a seven in a big win at Football Park in 2006. This sees him share the record between the clubs with Port’s Jay Schulz, who twice kicked seven against the Lions.
Along the way 10 Brisbane players and one coach have debuted against Port. Brett Voss was the first in the first meeting in ’97, and was followed in ’98 by caretaker coach Roger Merrett, who began his stint at the helm with a draw at the Gabba after the mid-season sacking of John Northey.
Daniel Merrett and Tom Logan shared their debut in 2005 before Patfull (2006), one-gamer Daniel Dzufer (2007), Tom Cutler and Nick Robertson (2014), Archie Smith (2016), James Madden (2021) and Will Ashcroft (2023).
It should surprise no Brisbane fans that Harris Andrews will play his 200th AFL game on Saturday given a rich milestone history against Port headed by Darryl White’s 250th game, and the 200th for Voss, Marcus Ashcroft, Chris Scott (in the 2004 grand final) and Charlie Cameron,
Matthew Kennedy, Brad Scott and Matt Maguire played their 150th against Port, and Justin Leppitsch, Craig McRae, Jarrod Molloy, Justin Sherman and Andrew Raines played their 100th with Cameron, who has made a habit of enjoying big moments in his one-time ‘home’ city.
The other connection between the clubs has been Mark Williams, the Bears’ first signing in 1986 who played 66 games in Brisbane colors from 1987-90 before coaching Port 273 times from 1999-2010.