#30 Joe Atley

[Forzaport]

Height: 186 cm

Weight: 84 kg

Date of Birth: 4th August 1998

Nickname:

Twitter Handle:

Position: Midfielder

Recruited From: Bendigo Pioneers (2016 National Draft Pick #32)

Career Games: 0

Career Goals: 0

For more career stats click here

Honours:

More info on Joe Atley:
http://www.afl.com.au/draft/draft-tracker
The younger brother of North Melbourne's speedy half-back Shaun Atley is a different type of player. The Bendigo Pioneers captain is a strong-bodied inside midfielder who burrows into contests and often feeds the ball out to the runners. Has shown he can kick goals, and was second in the goalkicking test at the NAB AFL Draft Combine. Averaged 20 possessions (eight contested) for Vic Country in the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships and played two VFL games for Geelong.
http://www.afl.com.au/draft/draft-tracker

Highlight Reel:

 

[snozulu]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-04/he-still-remembers-the-elbow-mid-atley-tags-mentor

SECOND-YEAR Port Adelaide midfielder Joe Atley is loving being mentored by 300-gamer Scott Thompson.
When the two squared off in the SANFL, Atley had 25 disposals, while Thompson had 23, 10 clearances and seven tackles as Port won by 35 points.

"He still remembers the elbow I gave him," Atley said.

"I don't think he'll forget that.

"I gave him one, but that was accidental."

"Port went out and recruited a lot of midfielders because we want to achieve the ultimate success," Atley said.

"It's just another person to beat and everyone is fighting for spots.

"I don't see it as a setback; I see it as a challenge and I want to improve and knock those boys over."

The Power's first and second-year players will be put through a gruelling four-day training camp in Sydney with NRL club South Sydney, starting Monday.

"Kenny (coach Ken Hinkley) has said it's going to be a grind and mentally challenging," Atley said.

"I was looking through the Rabbitohs' list and most of their players are over 100kg.

"No doubt, there'll be a bit of tackling, and hopefully we can do a bit of running with them and show them up in that area."

 

[OneGreatClub]

 

[Us against the rest]

Just wanting peoples thoughts on Atley's game against the Suns.
I thought he still had an influence on play, his stats might not suggest he played well. i would like to see him have another opportunity, although Drew is unlucky not to be selected.,

 

[PJ Power]

Atley still excites me more than Drew, but I think it's more the thought of Atley than his actual output.

His strength and uniqueness to me, is the energy and pace with which he seems to hit the stoppage and dance his way through congestion. He has a Francou-like ability to handball cleanly in traffic.
The big negative is what I perceive to be the Adam Thomson quality of not kicking the football when he has time and space. There was an example of this in the third term yesterday, when he collected a ball in the centre square and had a fair amount of space around him. Instead of taking a few strides with the ball towards our goal and kicking inside 50 or passing it off, he turned away from our goal to handball to a stationary Lycett who then hoofed the ball forward from a further back position and a standing start. It looked like a stupid option to me.

He needs to back himself in to kick the ball more often and work harder on his kicking to at least be able to hit up short passes going into 50.

He dropped a difficult but important mark in the third quarter that resulted in GC's only second half goal from memory.

He also needs to find more of the footy on the outside.

All of that being said, I really like him and want him to make it. I'd like to see him get a string of 6-8 games like Drew did to try to consolidate his position in our side before Wines can be considered for selection again.

I think the coaches want to back him in, and they recognise that he does offer something different around stoppage than the others we have in there. He's clearly a tough body to tackle and he is very good at extricating the ball to teammates.

Hope he makes it and makes it big.