Joel Freijah Biography

Joel Freijah believes he has built some genuine resilience by working his way through the first serious form slump of his career.

Six weeks ago, Freijah had been dropped back to the VFL for the round 19 clash with Gold Coast.

"I stayed positive through it all, and I feel like I've built a bit of resilience as well coming through the other side of it," he said.

"I just needed to strip my game back and simplify things and play on instinct, and that's helped me a lot."

Bulldog Joel Freijah, a rising star, made a tough decision to leave home for boarding school and has since excelled in football, drawing comparisons to Marcus Bontempelli.

"It was a hard decision to leave family. We are a really close family, and I'm from Horsham originally, so two hours away from Ballarat. But I'm extremely grateful for it," Freijah said.

"Every day there is routine, there is discipline, even just being away from family at a young age you develop so many daily skills you don't realise you do develop until you come out of school and others don't have that just went to school as a day student."

Joel Freijah makes his AFL debut for the Western Bulldogs at the MCG with 17 disposals (9 kicks and 8 handballs), 4 marks and 2 tackles in a 91-point win over Richmond.

Western Bulldogs select Joel Freijah with pick No.45 in the 2023 National Draft.