‘Ruthless and relentless’: What makes Joel Selwood one of footy’s greatest competitors

Joel Selwood was celebrating the Cats’ 2011 Grand Final win when he made a beeline for Mark Stevens in a moment the journo will never forget, Mark Robinson writes.

It was Quint from the movie Jaws who said the eyes of the great white shark were “lifeless eyes, black eyes … like a doll’s eyes”.

It’s the imagery — a predator unafraid in its environment, just ruthless and relentless and uncaring of what’s happened or about to happen.

On the football field that’s Joel Selwood.

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It’s a look that teammate Mathew Stokes and journalist Mark Stevens won’t ever forget.

“Joel had this look in his eye in a game and it’s just ‘get on my shoulders and I’ll do the rest, follow me’, and he drove me so many times just with the sheer look in his eyes before a game,” Stokes said on a Cats podcast in 2020.

“There’s been games where it’s on the line and you just look at Joel and you just knew that we were going to get through because of his grit.”

Stevo’s story is less heroic but equally gladiatorial.

Mathew Stokes hugs teammate Joel Selwood in 2015. Stokes says Selwood would have a look in his eyes that meant he would carry the team to victory. Picture: Colleen Petch

In the lead up to the 2011 finals series, he wrote an article for the Herald Sun about finals performers, with Hawk Brad Sewell his centrepiece of success.

In the same article, he noted that Selwood’s final performances trailed Selwood’s home-and-away output.

The newspaper’s headline was Mr September in reference to Sewell.

The online version’s headline was Miss September in reference to Selwood.

After Geelong won the premiership — and Selwood had 28 possessions and kicked two goals — Stevens was kicking around the rooms looking for a story.

Selwood, meanwhile, was looking for Stevens.

“I’ll never forget it,’’ Stevens said Friday.

“The look in his eyes … it was a look of blue steel and defiance.

“He grabbed his medal and thrust it towards me and said something like, ‘how does this look, Stevo’. I didn’t say much, I was stunned, I moved on.

“It was in this moment of total joy, everyone was hugging, all the families were in there and in this moment he went out of his way to stick it up me …. Yeah, I won’t forget it.

“He pulled the ribbon and medal towards me as hard as Choco’s tie’’.

Stevens doesn’t harbour a grudge with the digital sub-editor who wrote the Miss September headline. Nor does Selwood hold a grudge with Stevens.

One of Stevens’ final jobs at Channel 7 was with Selwood and a couple of footy-loving kids who have Down syndrome.

Joel Selwood fires off a handball despite pressure from David Mundy in Geelong’s Round 18 win over the Dockers at Perth Stadium on July 15, 2021. Picture: Getty Images

“We’ve never spoken about that moment, I’m not sure he remembers it, but I haven’t forgotten it,” Stevens said.

“But we seemed to have a great relationship in the past five or six years.”

This week, Selwood signed a one-year contract extension which will see him play on for a 16th season.

Which is amazing for a kid who had a bung knee in his draft year and slipped to No.7 in selection.

Before him were Bryce Gibbs (No.1), Scott Gumbleton, Lachie Hansen, Matthew Leuenberger, Travis Boak and Mitch Thorpe. That hurts so many people.

It hurts when clubs pass on the eventual champs, more so when they are generational players who shape a football club.

Selwood needs just 10 more games to surpass Stephen Kernahan’s 226-game record for the most games captained in AFL/VFL history.

He’ll get there.

AFL great Leigh Matthews, another ruthless competitor, said this week that while Selwood was playing footy, he should be captain.

Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood celebrate a Geelong goal in theirwin over St Kilda at The Gabba in August 2020. Picture: Michael Klein

Patrick Dangerfield, the next pick captain, would love to see Selwood make history

“Nothing would please me more than to see him hold that record,” Dangerfield told the Herald Sun.

“Joel’s not one for records or caring for that sort of thing. But he deserves that mantle.”

Indeed, it has been asked this week if Selwood is the greatest captain of all time.

Nobody can answer that question with absolute certainty, but that it has been asked about Selwood is justification of his standing.

Plainly, to play football for 15 years in the manner in which Selwood has — ferociously competitive and with a sharp tongue, which hasn’t always endeared him to opponents, it must be said — is astonishingly admirable.

History, also, would come with a premiership.

Selwood has never been a premiership captain and he certainly doesn’t need one to define him as a player.

But he would desperately want one.

Maybe this season presents his best opportunity.

The Cats are cracking the whip. They dismantled the Dockers on the road on Thursday night. It was frightening for its power and precision and Selwood was his usual combative self in the midfield.

He had 24 disposals and kicked a goal.

Joel Selwood with five-year-old Keisha Low who lives with Cerebral Palsy. Low, a big Selwood fan, ran through the Cats banner before a game in 2017. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Earlier this season, there were concerns that Selwood’s impact had diminished.

Those concerns were presumptive. His numbers this year are parallel to his career.

You have to wonder if the Cats, in 2019, were also premature with a positional change for Selwood.

That year, they moved Selwood to a wing to a) aid the midfield development of youngsters such as Brandan Parfitt and Charlie Constable and b) help prolong Selwood’s career by keeping him out of the crash and bash.

The Cats were rolled in their first final against Collingwood and Selwood played 40 per cent game time on the wing.

The next week, against West Coast, he was 100 per cent midfield, and Cats fans would well remember his third-quarter goal — a set shot from 45m which wrestled back momentum.

From that game onwards, Selwood has never been out of the midfield.

For all his animalistic endeavours at the contest, which often means his kicking efficiency can be poor, he remains an outstanding set shot kicker for goal.

In the past five years, his goalkicking has been at 68 per cent.

Teammate Tom Hawkins, considered by many to have the best set shot in the competition, is at 58 per cent.

Clearly, he has an eye for the goals and, this year and next, an eye on greater rewards.

Originally published as ‘Ruthless and relentless’: What makes Joel Selwood one of footy’s greatest competitors