IN JUST his sixth AFL game, Joel Jeffrey turned heads with a bag of five goals against the Western Bulldogs at Ballarat's Mars Stadium.

He won that week's Telstra AFL Rising Star nomination and looked a forward of the future for the Suns.

But just 12 months later, Gold Coast's athletic utility would move to the other end of the ground while playing in its VFL team – and never look back.

Jeffrey, now 23 and entrenched in Damien Hardwick's best team, played in both attack and defence during his junior years, so malleable was his set of skills.

Pre-selected by the Suns as part of their Darwin Academy zone in 2020, Jeffrey got to Carrara with plenty of external adulation. With his speed, vertical leap, ability to read the ball in the air and his laser-like kicking, he could have gone as high as the first round in an open draft.

Jeffrey, the son of former St Kilda and Brisbane Bears player, Russell, had plenty of junior representative experience, lining up for Northern Territory underage teams, the Allies and even playing some seniors in the NTFL for Wanderers.

But after that breakout game against the Bulldogs in 2022, he was in, and mainly out, of the Suns' best team.

It was during May of the following year he was switched to defence and began a change in his career trajectory.

"It was a game out here (People First Stadium) in the VFL against Casey," Jeffrey told AFL.com.au.

"I was playing forward the first half and kicked a goal or two, and they threw me down back for the second half.

"I was on (Jake) Melksham and ended up playing a pretty good half. Ever since then I stayed down back."

Midway through 2024, Jeffrey had played a total of 16 senior games in three-and-a-half seasons.

Hardwick was searching for answers in the back half of the ground. His key pillars of Sam Collins, Charlie Ballard and Mac Andrew were set. Wil Powell was a constant. But the three-time premiership coach wanted some more flair, some more quality ball use from that part of the ground.

Jeffrey said with the help of backline coach Josh Drummond and development coach Nick Malceski, both attacking defenders in their playing days, he had learned the balance of his role.

"I needed to work on my defensive game, whether that's one-on-one, playing on talls or smalls," he said.

"I prioritised what I could do when I got the footy, but last year I went to work on the defensive side of things … if I have that 'defend first' mentality through the game, I can play off the back of it.

"I feel like that’s helped me a lot."

He played 12 games in the back half of last season, averaging 17 disposals, to set a launch pad for 2025.

Hardwick has always been a supporter, but drove the 192cm Northern Territorian hard.

He wanted Jeffrey to knuckle down during the past off-season and work on his running capacity.

"He was like, 'I know what player you can be if you get to work on these things'," Jeffrey said. 

"He was right. I went to work in the off-season. I feel like I can run games out more, use my speed more often during games and play with flair and have fun.

"They set up an easy plan for me to follow in the off-season when I went back home to Darwin.

"It's easy to drift away in Darwin and do the things I love, like hunting and fishing.

"He's like, 'You've always got time for that, but when you need to nail these sessions, just do it in the morning, get it done, then you've got the whole day'.

"They made an easy program for me to follow, which helped me a lot."

Jeffrey ingrained the habit of knocking over his running sessions before the brutal Top End sun rose, running around his family's five acre block before going to a nearby oval to work on his skills.

"My first couple of years I struggled to get up and do those sessions," he said.

"Last year I found a time that suited me in the morning, early.

"Footy is about learning and I feel I'm starting to get a good feel of that now."

Jeffrey has played all 20 games to date this year, taking on greater defensive responsibility following the season-ending knee injury suffered by Ballard, and greater attacking responsibility after Daniel Rioli went down with a leg injury.

Whatever Hardwick has asked for, Jeffrey has delivered, and although he's not the high-flying forward many outsiders dreamed of after the breakout game in Ballarat, his impact is just as profound at the other end of the ground as Gold Coast marches to a maiden finals appearance.