Joel Porter began his career in his native Australia playing for Croydon in the South Australia state league before the Adelaide Sharks gave him his debut in the NSL in 1998/99. Porter went on to have a successful spell at Melbourne Knights where his goalscoring form (24 in 56 games) earned him an international call up. Porter played for the Socceroos in the Oceania Nations Cup in July 2002, scoring six times in his four appearances including a four-goal haul against Fiji. After the Oceania Cup, he had a spell with Olympic Sharks before deciding to try his luck in England, and Neale Cooper brought him to Pools in November 2003. Porter made a slow start to his Pools career, often showing a frustrating reluctance to shoot when well-placed. But his confidence steadily improved as he has played more first team games. He received the benefit of his first full pre-season in 2004 and started the next season a stronger player. As the season progressed his levels of performance and consistency improved and he established himself as a key member of the first team, and developed a strong striking partnership with Adam Boyd. His performances during the season earned him the supporters` Player of the Season award. Porter had an unlucky time during 2005/06 and 2006/07. A series of injuries limited him to just 20 league starts in two seasons. Having returned to fitness in April 2007 he went on to have his best injury-free spell for a long time, missing just a handful of games in the 2007/08 season and scoring 13 goals. With New Zealand-based Australian League side Wellington Phoenix expressing an interest in taking Porter back down under in the summer of 2008, Pools exercised a clause in his contract in the hope of keeping the striker at Victoria Park for another season. If there was any truth in the rumour that Porter was unhappy to be in England for another season he didn`t let it show on the pitch. The 2008/09 season was the striker`s best season in a Pools shirt. Off the pitch he continued to be linked with a move to the Australian A-League, with Gold Coast United the latest club to show an interest, but on the pitch Porter got on with his job of scoring and creating goals, and he bagged a first ever league hat-trick in a 3-3 draw with Swindon Town. Porter finally broke his silence on the A-League rumours in April when he unsurprisingly confirmed he would be leaving in the summer to take up a contract with Gold Coast. He signed off in style, scoring twice at Yeovil to take his season`s tally to a career-best 23 goals, before being crowned the Player of the Year by fans and players alike before his last home game against Leeds United.