Rumour GFC 2025 Player Trading, Drafting FA, Rumours and Wish lists Pt 2

[Burtyl78]

Errr you sure there mate?

As sure as can be, Stengle hasn’t had that good of season and is a ticking time bomb off the field

 

[Burtyl78]

Atkins' strengths are winning clearances, tough tackling in close, and tagging. His weaknesses are ball use, athleticism, finding the footy, and hitting the scoreboard. He is a defensive midfielder all day, every day.

So you would basically get rid of a guaranteed 35 goals/year, in exchange for some 'grunt'.

The cats have a lot of slight forwards that don’t have grunt, you are aware you get clearances anywhere on the ground aren’t you ?? And did you watch the grand final? The whole point of worpel is to avoid getting bashed up around the contest and throwing Atkins more up forward will help address that

 

[D BRIDGE]

I would trade Stengle and play Atkins as a small forward, brings more grunt

If push came to shove and I could move on Stengle (and he was fine with that) and get Curnow in... I'm doing it.

But, maybe someone like Mannagh could spend more time inside f50 as I'd be keeping Axe in the guts.

 

[iameviljez]

The cats have a lot of slight forwards that don’t have grunt, you are aware you get clearances anywhere on the ground aren’t you ?? And did you watch the grand final? The whole point of worpel is to avoid getting bashed up around the contest and throwing Atkins more up forward will help address that

Yes, but if you are playing midfield and there's a stoppage in the forward line, you can make your way down there. A far more important set of skills for a small forward is the ability to beat an opponent one-on-one, use evasive skills, snap goals, and take the occasional overhead mark.

We have, probably, the best forward line in the AFL. The forward line was not the problem on Saturday, the supply was the issue.

We tried Atkins up forward for two years. It didn't work because he does not kick goals and doesn't provide any attacking threat.

 

[cats_09]

I would trade Stengle and play Atkins as a small forward, brings more grunt

I'd rather our small forwards be able to kick goals

Atkins would be more likely to replace someone like Close up forward

 

[iameviljez]

I'd rather our small forwards be able to kick goals

Atkins would be more likely to replace someone like Close up forward

Closey has had a down year, but even then he's kicked roughly four times the number of goals that Atkins has in his best calendar year for it.

 

[cats_09]

Feel for Bevo, Wilkie was the right trade target. What is power thinking?

If Kolodjashnij is still on the FA list, they really should throw an offer his way

While I'd prefer to not lose JK, I'm trying to work out the he fits into our defensive unit next season, or do we see someone like Humphries start to play further up the ground?

 

[CatRiot]

What's happening to Tanner Bruhn?

 

[iameviljez]

If Kolodjashnij is still on the FA list, they really should throw an offer his way

While I'd prefer to not lose JK, I'm trying to work out the he fits into our defensive unit next season, or do we see someone like Humphries start to play further up the ground?

I think the only way Kolo gets in, is if Stanley goes and Marshall doesn't come.

Otherwise, De Koning and O'Sullivan take the two key posts, with Stewart, J Henry and Zuthrie as the third tall style player.

 

[iameviljez]

What's happening to Tanner Bruhn?

Be patient, wait for the court process to take shape. This is going to be messy for many months yet and there's no rush at this point.

 

[cats_09]

As sure as can be, Stengle hasn’t had that good of season and is a ticking time bomb off the field

We know towards the end of the he missed a few goals we'd normally expect him to kick, but how exactly did he not have a good season?

This certainly looks a pretty solid season against his Geelong teammates

• 1.42 goals per game, 3rd
• 3.04 tackles per game, 8th
• 1.62 tackles inside 50, 1st; he also ranks 5th in the league from those who've played a minimum 5 games
• 1 goal assist per game, 3rd
• 6.33 score involvements per game, 8th
• 1.62 marks inside 50 per game, 3rd and ahead of Dangerfield

And his total contributions aren't that different compared with his AA season in 22

In 2022 he was averaging:

• 14.4 disposals
• 3.3 marks
• 2.6 tackles, of which 0.9 were inside forward 50
• 2.1 goals & 0.5 goal assists, totalling 2.6 goals contributed per game

In 2025 he's averaged

• 12.4 disposals (so down a little)
• 3 marks
• 3 tackles, with 1.6 inside forward 50
• 1.4 goals & 1 goal assist, totally 2.4 goals contributed per game

One of the biggest areas of change for Stengle in his 4th season with us is that he's become less selfish and looking to bring teammates into the game more often - he's a valuable asset to the team

 

[cats_09]

What's happening to Tanner Bruhn?

We'll know more in November as to his likely availability for 2026

 

[Interdimensional Bigfoot]

How tf is Stanley still on the list! I hate trade period I WANT MY PRESENTS NOW!!!!!!!

 

[Interdimensional Bigfoot]

What's happening to Tanner Bruhn?

He got really chunky!

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

What's happening to Tanner Bruhn?

The Court Case is still ongoing, so nothing is happening at the moment.

 

[CatRiot]

We know towards the end of the he missed a few goals we'd normally expect him to kick, but how exactly did he not have a good season?

This certainly looks a pretty solid season against his Geelong teammates

• 1.42 goals per game, 3rd
• 3.04 tackles per game, 8th
• 1.62 tackles inside 50, 1st; he also ranks 5th in the league from those who've played a minimum 5 games
• 1 goal assist per game, 3rd
• 6.33 score involvements per game, 8th
• 1.62 marks inside 50 per game, 3rd and ahead of Dangerfield

And his total contributions aren't that different compared with his AA season in 22

In 2022 he was averaging:

• 14.4 disposals
• 3.3 marks
• 2.6 tackles, of which 0.9 were inside forward 50
• 2.1 goals & 0.5 goal assists, totalling 2.6 goals contributed per game

In 2025 he's averaged

• 12.4 disposals (so down a little)
• 3 marks
• 3 tackles, with 1.6 inside forward 50
• 1.4 goals & 1 goal assist, totally 2.4 goals contributed per game

One of the biggest areas of change for Stengle in his 4th season with us is that he's become less selfish and looking to bring teammates into the game more often - he's a valuable asset to the team

I wouldnt trade Stengle unless we were being compensated with crazy terms. There are others on the list I'd like to see go before him.

 

[standupand]

We know towards the end of the he missed a few goals we'd normally expect him to kick, but how exactly did he not have a good season?

This certainly looks a pretty solid season against his Geelong teammates

• 1.42 goals per game, 3rd
• 3.04 tackles per game, 8th
• 1.62 tackles inside 50, 1st; he also ranks 5th in the league from those who've played a minimum 5 games
• 1 goal assist per game, 3rd
• 6.33 score involvements per game, 8th
• 1.62 marks inside 50 per game, 3rd and ahead of Dangerfield

And his total contributions aren't that different compared with his AA season in 22

In 2022 he was averaging:

• 14.4 disposals
• 3.3 marks
• 2.6 tackles, of which 0.9 were inside forward 50
• 2.1 goals & 0.5 goal assists, totalling 2.6 goals contributed per game

In 2025 he's averaged

• 12.4 disposals (so down a little)
• 3 marks
• 3 tackles, with 1.6 inside forward 50
• 1.4 goals & 1 goal assist, totally 2.4 goals contributed per game

One of the biggest areas of change for Stengle in his 4th season with us is that he's become less selfish and looking to bring teammates into the game more often - he's a valuable asset to the team

He has cost us in big games recently. The GF this year. Last years prelim. Those are the things that stick in peoples' mind during an off-season.

 

[The Unforgiven]

Can someone please explain to me why the NGA’s exist?

My understanding is that the official reason they exist is to grow the game in non-afl heartland locations or areas that need resources. Ie. the northern states, or remote locations.

So if this is true, why are the NGA’s run by individual clubs? Why is it the club’s responsibility to grow the game? Surely they are acting in the club’s best interest and not the best interest of the game as a whole. Is “growing the game” in non-afl heartland locations not the AFL’s responsibility?

So why do the AFL not run these NGA’s, with the intent that these players are distributed in the same way that every other draftee does? It seems ludicrous to me that these NGA’s have been outsourced to the clubs.

What am I missing? Apart from the actual intent of funnelling local kids into the non-afl state teams?

I completely agree with you. The way I see it, the AFL outsources it to the clubs because it allows for the clubs to grow themselves and incentivises them to put the effort and resources in to football programs with a huge carrot of local talent for them to access.

If the AFL went about it with no or very little input by the clubs, it would come across as more of a soulless southern state entity. By creating a local level program run by the clubs, the AFL doesn't have to commit the human resources, it just has to monitor the progress from AFL HQ.

 

[cats_09]

Closey has had a down year, but even then he's kicked roughly four times the number of goals that Atkins has in his best calendar year for it.

Some didn't like my suggestion during the season, BUT if we were to lose a small forward I feel like Close would hurt the least in terms of structure

In terms of his numbers versus teammates this season:

• 0.73 goals per game, 10th (averaged 1 each of the last 3 seasons)
• 2.33 tackles per game, 16th (lowest career average)
• 0.62 tackles inside, 12th (lowest career average, with O. Henry averaging 1.07)
• 12.6 disposals (lowest since debut season)

The positives

• 5.85 score involvements, 10th (equal career high)
• 1.15 goal assists, 2nd (career high)
• 2.77 marks (around his career average)
• 1.04 marks inside 50, 6th (career high)

I'm not really certain of his role at times - Stengle is our goal kicking small forward, and we've seen Miers & Mannagh work to become midfield contributors with the former also a strong goal kicker. I would have said Close was seen as a pressure small forward in previous seasons, doing some of that grunt work, but we've got others doing the grunt work as well as hitting the scoreboard

As an example, all of Stengle, Mannagh, Neale, Atkins, Cameron, Martin, Henry, Dangerfield & Dempsey average 1+ tackles inside 50 this season


I know some talk about Close being Geelong's barometer, but is the correlation more along the lines of 'Good Close = Good Geelong', or is it that 'Good Geelong = seeing Good Close'

 

[cats_09]

He has cost us in big games recently. The GF this year. Last years prelim. Those are the things that stick in peoples' mind during an off-season.

That was more than Stengle - kinda like the guys running through the midfield who failed to hit targets up forward

 

[The Unforgiven]

NGAs are different to Northern Academies - every club has their own NGA, here's the info from our:

NEXT GENERATION ACADEMIES​

ABOUT THE PROGRAM​

The Next Generation Academies (NGA's) are a joint initiative between the AFL and AFL Clubs aimed at the attraction, retention and development of all talented players (both male and female), whilst growing participation in the under-represented segments of our community. A key objective of the NGA's is to increase the talent pool of Indigenous and Multicultural players. These groups are significantly under-represented in the AFL comparative to the population, and therefore AFL Clubs are incentivised through draft concessions for their role in growing this talent pool. However, the primary function of the NGA's is to provide a Club based talent program to all kids, using the AFL Clubs' profile and expertise to raise awareness and interest in the programs.

ELIGIBILITY​

To qualify for the Geelong Cats NGA the player:

1. Resides in the Geelong Cats zone in Victoria or the Northern Territory
2. Identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
3. Was born in an African, Asian or non-English speaking country
4. Has at least one parent born in an African or Asian country; or
5. Has both parents born in a non-English speaking country other than Africa or Asia

GEELONG CATS NGA ZONE​

Geelong's Victorian NGA zone stretches from Lara in the east to Terang in the west and Skipton (north) to Cape Otway (south), with the club also having access to NGA talent in East Arnhem land in the Northern Territory.

Click here to see more on the NGA Academy Zones.
---
We've picked up a couple of our NGA players in previous seasons in Blake Schlensog & Clohesy, while this year we're likely to pick up at least one if not both of Jesse Mellor & Ben Rongdit. Next year we've got Tom Steinfort coming through as an NGA


The Northern Academies are different because they're specific to GWS, Sydney, GC & Brisbane where they're designed to help grow and promote the game in non-traditional AFL markets

One key issue with that is when they become a piss take due to Nick Blakey being an academy player even though father John played 359 games, Robert Scott played 245 across Geelong & North but Bailey was part of GCs academy, and then there's Luke Hodge who not only has 345 games under his belt but 4 premierships including 3 as captain, where his kids are likely to be eligible for Brisbane's academy due to the family living in Brisbane

Potentially similar with Harley's boys should the family still live in Sydney even with his new AFL role




More on our NGA here - https://www.geelongcats.com.au/teams/academy/

In the case where father-son eligible kids live in Sydney or Brisbane, which defaults to being the highest likelihood of a club’s claim?

If Luke Hodge's kid wants to play for Hawthorn, does Brisbane's northern academy subsume this criteria? Or does the kid get to choose?

 

[iameviljez]

The GF this year.

He was far from our worst in the Grand Final. Frankly, he was the only member of our front six who was getting a couple of decent looks at goal. Neale, Close, Mannagh, Danger, Cameron - all of them looked less dangerous than Stengle up forward on Saturday.

Arguing that he "cost" us a game where we were lost by eight goals after a few junk time consolations is ridiculous hyperbole.

 

[iameviljez]

In the case where father-son eligible kids live in Sydney or Brisbane, which defaults to being the highest likelihood of a club’s claim?

If Luke Hodge's kid wants to play for Hawthorn, does Brisbane's northern academy subsume this criteria? Or does the kid get to choose?

The latter.

 

[cats_09]

In the case where father-son eligible kids live in Sydney or Brisbane, which defaults to being the highest likelihood of a club’s claim?

If Luke Hodge's kid wants to play for Hawthorn, does Brisbane's northern academy subsume this criteria? Or does the kid get to choose?

The kid gets to choose his preference

Bailey Scott had the choice between nominating as an Academy pick for GC, or a F&S selection for either Geelong or North - he opted to nominate as a F&S selection for North, though we did bid on him forcing them to match

 

[iameviljez]

Some didn't like my suggestion during the season, BUT if we were to lose a small forward I feel like Close would hurt the least in terms of structure

I agree. If there was a small forward in the VFL demanding selection, then Close is out before Miers, Mannagh, Stengle.