Lions defender Joel Patfull is staying with Brisbane. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun
BRISBANE have extended club champion Joel Patfull's contract until the end of 2015, ensuring the club's defensive pillars are all locked away on long-term deals.
Brisbane's strategic vision released last year promised regular finals appearances and a grand final by 2015 and the club's football department have diligently worked to contract the key players they believe can return them to September.
At 28 and with 140 games under his belt, Patfull is at the peak of his powers and forms a defensive unit, alongside co-captain Jed Adcock and Daniel Merrett, that is the most settled and experienced area of the ground for the Lions.
His stocks have never been higher after a stand-out season in 2012, where he was asked to lead the defence while Merrett was on secondment in the forward line.
He won the Merrett-Murray Medal after a season of supreme consistency where he played all 22 home-and-away games, often on the opposition's best key forward.
Patfull intends to be a one-club player and this current deal will not be the last he signs with the Lions.
After enduring lean years since the club's last finals appearance in 2009, Patfull says he is now filled with confidence he can enjoy finals success before he hangs up his boots.
"I think so. We had a bad weekend (in losing to Western Bulldogs in round 1), but it has given us a wake-up call,'' Patfull said in the countdown to Saturday's Gabba season pipe-opener against Adelaide.
"We think we are on the right track, we have improved and there is confidence among the side at the moment.'
'Patfull flew under the radar outside of Brisbane in the early years of his career after he had been thrown a career lifeline by Brisbane in the 2005 draft, following two years on Port Adelaide's rookie list.
He arrived to a side that had lost a lot of experience from the premiership years and, although he had little AFL experience, he was physically and mentally prepared for league football after several seasons inn the SANFL
It did not take long for him to become a mainstay of the side and he has been an automatic selection ever since.In recent years, Patfull's reputation outside the club has grown and he would have found suitors had he chose to test the waters, but he said he never entertained any thoughts of leaving the Lions
"No, the Lions were the side that gave me a start as a 20-year-old,'' he said.``They picked me up after I'd been de-listed by Port, I'm grateful for that and I feel I owe them.''
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