Seventh campaign at Hassocks for Players’ Player of the Season
Raging Joe Bull is the first of last season’s record-breaking Hassocks squad to commit to the Robins for the 2024-25 Southern Combination League campaign.
Bull was voted joint Players’ Player of the Season last time out alongside the now-retired Super Pat Harding. He was involved in every game the Robins played, making 48 starts and one substitute appearance across all competitions.
The reinvention of Bull as a left back has been one of the biggest success stories of the James Westlake Era so far. Westlake first moved Bull into his back four in September 2022.
There has been no looking back since. Bull has made the number three shirt his own and is now closing in on 200 appearances for Hassocks.
Mark Dalgleish brought Bull to the Beacon in the summer of 2018 from Whitehawk, initially as a midfielder. He started 19 times and came off the bench a further 18 in the 2018-19 season as Hassocks finished 12th in the Premier Division.
Bull was pushed further forward in 2019-10 as both the first team and Under 23s utilised him as a striker. He scored three times from five starts and nine substitute appearances before the campaign was brought to an early end by Covid-19.
There were 11 senior appearances in 2020-21, followed by 19 starts and 14 runouts from the bench under Brad Sweetman in 2021-22.
Bull registered two very important goals that year in victories over fellow strugglers AFC Varndeanians and East Preston, helping pull the Robins clear of the Premier Division relegation zone.
With his move to left back, Bull missed only five matches in 2022-23 on his way to making 42 appearances and passing the 100 mark.
As well as winning Players’ Player of the Season in 2023-24, Bull also scored one of the best Hassocks goals of the campaign in the 1-1 FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round draw with Erith Town at the Beacon.
Collecting the ball some 38 yards out, nobody expected Bull to shoot save for one lonely voice in the Maurice Boxall Stand which said “Shoot” too quietly to be convincing.
Bull’s first touch was perfect, setting himself inside and into space to unleash a frankly unbelievable strike into the very top corner which went onto feature across the FA’s social media channels.
