Geelong and troubled small forward Tyson Stengle are set to part ways.
In fact, according to veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson, his career is “certainly over at the Geelong Football Club”.
“It now all becomes about the contract … and clearly it’s about Tyson and his welfare,” Wilson said on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters on Tuesday night.
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Stengle — who has not played AFL this season, missed a VFL game he was supposed to attend, and is now back in South Australia — has a three-year deal worth around $700,000 a year.
Asked if Stengle’s wage would sit within Geelong’s salary cap for its entirety, Wilson said there was now a “legal negotiation” involving Geelong, the Stengle camp and the AFL that needed to be thrashed out.
Collingwood are facing a similar scenario with Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill who is about to depart Collingwood.
“(Hill) also has several years left on his contract also around $700,00-$750,000,” Wilson said.
“These are costly negotiations that are going on at the moment and other clubs would have concerns.”
AFL great Luke Hodge said: Every other club would be thinking, if you’re a contracted person for that period of time, that should be under the salary cap. It’s no different from going to pick up someone from another club and offering a big deal.”
Channel 7 expert Kane Cornes agreed: “It’s a risk you take.”
Cornes also wondered if Geelong had handled Stengle well after he had an incident in a nightclub in 2024 where he was carried out and hospitalised.
“Geelong, if they had their time again, would they have handled things differently with Tyson Stengle? He had the nightclub incident in 2024, which they were fully supportive of (him afterwards).
“He played the following week. They then contacted him for five years beyond that in that same year, and they were so publicly supportive of him.
“We all praise Geelong with the way they handle their players and the maturity of the program and individuals and all that … but in hindsight, would they have taken a harder line on Tyson Stengle to what they did at that time when there were clear warning signs going off everywhere?
“Not only did they not take a hard line, they contracted him for five years, which brings us to the situation we’re in now.”
Wilson said Geelong “deny” that their handling of Stengle at that time was inappropriate.
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“There was some media who felt that after the nightclub incident, that it was just brilliant by Geelong. You know, never complain, never explain, play the next week, don’t make a big deal out of it,” Wilso said.
“Other clubs raised their eyebrows at the time and said this is going to end badly. Now, no one’s happy that it has ended badly.”
Wilson also said Geelong put a lot of support around Stengle, including getting Indigenous great Eddie Betts to the club.
“There has been no shortage of support, and what happened is that Tyson just gradually distanced himself from everything.”
Coach Chris Scott recently said there “were limits to where our empathy takes us” when asked about Stengle.
“We’re not a charity, as much as we’d like to be,” Scott said.
“You shouldn’t mistake the real priority that we place on player welfare for forgetting that we’re also in a high performance industry where we have high expectations of our players and our people so that we can perform as well as possible.”
