Rumour GFC 2026 Player Trading, Drafting FA, Rumours and Wish lists Pt 1

[dangerwood]

Took a while to reply here but good thought on it.

I see this as not being an apple to apple comparison.

The population of QLD + NSW combined is aprox 14 ish million in 2025.

Now you give four clubs exclusive access from a young age to go out and target the best and most promising athletes, throw them into academies and pump millions of dollars worth of resources into them each year with the sole focus of this elite small group in each clubs academy making it to AFL, it is very likely you are going to get some seriously talented players.

Nobody in Victoria has this privilege because the AFL takes care of it all. We have instead local grassroot clubs and then a bunch of district clubs which compete in a competition with each club having nowhere near the focus or funding of the academies, to develop players.

Imagine if collingwood could pour huge dollars and funding into an exclusive academy and pluck any of the best promising athletes from Vic they wanted and groom them for 6-7 years to become elite AFL stars + the benefit of also putting them into the local elite AFL funded grassroots pathways.

Do you think some extra stars might pop up into the draft all of a sudden??

Well yeah, I think if all clubs had their own academies then we would likely see more vic stars. The problem is equality but it's not like we have an equal comp anyway.
Either way, I'm not sure the AFL are doing a great job with promoting junior football in Victoria.
My main point is probably just that the academies are showing what investment in talent pathways can do.
All clubs having their own academies with no restrictions....likely creates some very strong teams and other stragglers (not too dissimilar to current) but it may be very good for developing and promoting the game.

 

[Hinkley29]

In case nobody had posted what Ted is up to next season…

View attachment 2487618

I know I’m not comparing apples with apples, but the fact that Ted is playing sanfl and George Stevens is still on our list just baffles me.

Ted at least has a slim chance to be a competent player in the current afl climate. George is no chance with his limitations and we are wasting a list spot on him.

 

[Warhorse]

I know I’m not comparing apples with apples, but the fact that Ted is playing sanfl and George Stevens is still on our list just baffles me.

Ted at least has a slim chance to be a competent player in the current afl climate. George is no chance with his limitations and we are wasting a list spot on him.

Agree. George and Wilshire have no place on any AFL list

 

[Gazza Greatness]

I know I’m not comparing apples with apples, but the fact that Ted is playing sanfl and George Stevens is still on our list just baffles me.

Ted at least has a slim chance to be a competent player in the current afl climate. George is no chance with his limitations and we are wasting a list spot on him.

Hinkley20: excluding George's lack of real pace what other limitations does he have? He's only 20yo, so his endurance will build to a competent level in time and with George's two AFL games this year he has deservedly received Brownlow votes in one game against a seasoned and mature Tigers midfield, including having 14 score involvements which was phenomenal performance for a young player only playing his first AFL game (something that Ted Clohesy could NEVER DO). And yes admittedly, he played poorly in the other AFL game against the GWS but being such a young and inexperienced player he'd learn plenty from that.

Hinkley20: the game still very much requires the strong bodied inside contested midfield player, 'the extractor' like a Lachie Neale who like George also lacks pace but Lachie is one high-class inside mid and that part of our game requiring players of this nature will never change. George in the VFL repeatedly gets high contested possessions and is perpetually in the best players and as previously stated and more importantly, George was also one of the best on the ground in one of his two AFL games. I for the life of me cannot see the knock on George Stevens with just about everyone here on Geelong BigFooty given up on him, yet he's absolutely done nothing wrong.

Obviously for the club to delist him at seasons end and bring him back as a rookie are warning signs, I just hope the club hasn't given up on George like most here, coz I still give George an excellent shot at being a highly competitive AFL player if given a fair opportunity which does require patience and 'length of time' which is absolutely no difference to any other young AFL prospect wanting to make a name for himself in this great game of ours in Aussie Rules.

 

[Matthew Jelley]

George has a lot of potential and I hope he gets more opportunities

I know I’m not comparing apples with apples, but the fact that Ted is playing sanfl and George Stevens is still on our list just baffles me.

Ted at least has a slim chance to be a competent player in the current afl climate. George is no chance with his limitations and we are wasting a list spot on him.

 

[Footy Smarts]

Agree. George and Wilshire have no place on any AFL list

How many of our grand final team didn't you write off at some point in time? It sort of feels like a right of passage at this point.

Fingers crossed these 2 go the way of Guthrie, Atkins, O'Connor, etc.

 

[Warhorse]

How many of our grand final team didn't you write off at some point in time? It sort of feels like a right of passage at this point.

Fingers crossed these 2 go the way of Guthrie, Atkins, O'Connor, etc.

Have they ever been delisted like George?

 

[Gazza Greatness]

George has a lot of potential and I hope he gets more opportunities

MJ: I'd be happy if George Stevens gets just half the opportunities that have been granted to Jhye Clark but then again he wasn't a no.8 draft pick. One would have thought his got off to a good start receiving Brownlow votes in one of the two AFL games that he's played including a staggering 14 score involvements but nah the club decides to delist then rookie him. I seldom disagree with the club but that one was a real head scratcher, yet all is good with Oli Wiltshire, strange days indeed.

 

[Gazza Greatness]

Have they ever been delisted like George?

Warhorse:.... has the club ever delisted a player thats received Brownlow votes in one of only two AFL games he has played against the likes of a very mature and experienced Tiger midfield. My memory over many years tells me a definite NO.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Fingers crossed these 2 go the way of Guthrie, Atkins, O'Connor, etc.

Difference with those is that they were consistently picked in the side from a fairly early stage, despite some fans' protestations. Stevens has been given few chances and dropped to the VFL at the first opportunity. He was then delisted and re-rookied. There's not a lot of evidence to suggest that the coaches have much more faith in him that the critical fans do.

Guthrie, MOC, Atkins,etc. weren't given that kind of treatment.

 

[thejester]

I know I’m not comparing apples with apples, but the fact that Ted is playing sanfl and George Stevens is still on our list just baffles me.

Ted at least has a slim chance to be a competent player in the current afl climate. George is no chance with his limitations and we are wasting a list spot on him.

Hard to think of a more apples to apples comparison than Clohesy and Stevens - they’re inside midfielders who lack the step of pace necessary to jump from state leagues to the AFL. Ted pretty clearly hit his ceiling, remains to be seen if Stevens has (probably).

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I know I’m not comparing apples with apples, but the fact that Ted is playing sanfl and George Stevens is still on our list just baffles me.

Ted at least has a slim chance to be a competent player in the current afl climate. George is no chance with his limitations and we are wasting a list spot on him.

I agree personally but Ted's limitations were obviously ones clubs didnt want. Might get a shot on a list in a year if he improves on them.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Warhorse:.... has the club ever delisted a player thats received Brownlow votes in one of only two AFL games he has played against the likes of a very mature and experienced Tiger midfield. My memory over many years tells me a definite NO.

Most players don't have Georges lack of athletic capability and thats where the game is going.

 

[Footy Smarts]

Difference with those is that they were consistently picked in the side from a fairly early stage, despite some fans' protestations. Stevens has been given few chances and dropped to the VFL at the first opportunity. He was then delisted and re-rookied. There's not a lot of evidence to suggest that the coaches have much more faith in him that the critical fans do.

Guthrie, MOC, Atkins,etc. weren't given that kind of treatment.

That was Zuthrie not C Guthrie. Zach didn't play much in his first few years. Nor did MOC who came as a mature ager and played like 2 and 5 games in his first 2 seasons or something like that.

Stevens and Wiltshire are only 2 years in. Wiltshire wasn't delisted. Clearly the club sees something in him.

I just find Warhorse funny. He wrote off probably 80% of the homegrown players in our 2022 premiership team at one time or another. Now he's back here telling the world that Geelong has given list spots to 2 guys who "have no place on an AFL list".

I just assume the club sees something in them and they are working with 100x the information and have a million times the record of anyone around here.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Hinkley20: excluding George's lack of real pace what other limitations does he have? He's only 20yo, so his endurance will build to a competent level in time and with George's two AFL games this year he has deservedly received Brownlow votes in one game against a seasoned and mature Tigers midfield, including having 14 score involvements which was phenomenal performance for a young player only playing his first AFL game (something that Ted Clohesy could NEVER DO). And yes admittedly, he played poorly in the other AFL game against the AFL benchmark in the Brisbane Lions but being such a young and inexperienced player he'd learn plenty from that.

Hinkley20: the game still very much requires the strong bodied inside contested midfield player, 'the extractor' like a Lachie Neale who like George also lacks pace but Lachie is one high-class inside mid and that part of our game requiring players of this nature will never change. George in the VFL repeatedly gets high contested possessions and is perpetually in the best players and as previously stated and more importantly, George was also one of the best on the ground in one of his two AFL games. I for the life of me cannot see the knock on George Stevens with just about everyone here on Geelong BigFooty given up on him, yet he's absolutely done nothing wrong.

Obviously for the club to delist him at seasons end and bring him back as a rookie are warning signs, I just hope the club hasn't given up on George like most here, coz I still give George an excellent shot at being a highly competitive AFL player if given a fair opportunity which does require patience and 'length of time' which is absolutely no difference to any other young AFL prospect wanting to make a name for himself in this great game of ours in Aussie Rules.

What aspect of the concerns around George stevens abilities do you feel will improve with age and conditioning?? The issue is he is close to probably the slowest player at league level if he is in a starting 23, and he has zero athletic traits.

I would probably back the majority of key position players to beat him in a foot race and he is probably on par with a lot of lumbering rucks for pace. Think Riley o Brien pace.

That second game against GWS it looked like a geriatric trying to chase grand children around.

Can tell me what will improve to make him AFL capable?

What he is good at he is already good at, the issues are god given, not amendable

 

[splashwave]

Still feeling whiplash at how fast the talk about George went from our ‘midfield future is secure’ to ‘Stevens will never make it’ in the space of a week.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Still feeling whiplash at how fast the talk about George went from our ‘midfield future is secure’ to ‘Stevens will never make it’ in the space of a week.

I think the two camps just didn't really speak up at the same time because it would have just been pointless arguing.

Individuals seem mostly consistent

 

[Hamingja]

The one positive for Clohesy was that he did show the ability to play a few different positions. I think in the right circumstances he could graft out an Atkins like career. The problem for him is that Worpel has come in, Bruhn is back, and he was the one left without a chair (contract) when the music stopped.

 

[Gazza Greatness]

Most players don't have Georges lack of athletic capability and thats where the game is going.

It may well be going that way PO: but if your good enough then you'll get games, especially midfield extractors coz they're priceless and I don't see anybody saying to Lachie Neale he shouldn't be getting games because of his non athletic capabilities. If your good enough to play AFL, then you'll play but for some who don't fit the going norm then they've gotta be ultra good.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

The one positive for Clohesy was that he did show the ability to play a few different positions. I think in the right circumstances he could graft out an Atkins like career. The problem for him is that Worpel has come in, Bruhn is back, and he was the one left without a chair (contract) when the music stopped.

I agree with all of that, i just don't get how he was the one without a chair with Stevens and Wiltshire still there

 

[Mr Meow]

I agree with all of that, i just don't get how he was the one without a chair with Stevens and Wiltshire still there

Wiltshire has better skills/tricks and Stevens is better/stronger in the contest, plus a better kick.

Clohesy is slow, small and lacks elite skills or composure.

 

[D BRIDGE]

It may well be going that way PO: but if your good enough then you'll get games, especially midfield extractors coz they're priceless and I don't see anybody saying to Lachie Neale he shouldn't be getting games because of his non athletic capabilities. If your good enough to play AFL, then you'll play but for some who don't fit the going norm then they've gotta be ultra good.

Not sure Lachie Neale and Steven's are in the same world when it comes to size, game style and athletic capabilities, besides being mids.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Wiltshire has better skills/tricks and Stevens is better/stronger in the contest, plus a better kick.

Clohesy is slow, small and lacks elite skills or composure.

I would still take him over either of those options.

 

[GlenMiddlemissed]

That was Zuthrie not C Guthrie. Zach didn't play much in his first few years. Nor did MOC who came as a mature ager and played like 2 and 5 games in his first 2 seasons or something like that.

Stevens and Wiltshire are only 2 years in. Wiltshire wasn't delisted. Clearly the club sees something in him.

I just find Warhorse funny. He wrote off probably 80% of the homegrown players in our 2022 premiership team at one time or another. Now he's back here telling the world that Geelong has given list spots to 2 guys who "have no place on an AFL list".

I just assume the club sees something in them and they are working with 100x the information and have a million times the record of anyone around here.

To back you up, Zuthrie played 1 game in his 3rd year at age 21, 3 games at 22 and 13 games in his 5th year at 23. Atkins was not even on an AFL list until 24 yrs old.

 

[cats_09]

Wiltshire has better skills/tricks and Stevens is better/stronger in the contest, plus a better kick.

Clohesy is slow, small and lacks elite skills or composure.

He failed to show too many of them in the second half of the VFL season