Lachie Henderson won’t be offered a contract by Geelong for 2020 season

The future of out-of-contract Geelong veteran Lachie Henderson will be determined in the coming days as next Thursday’s AFL list lodgement deadline looms.

Lachie Henderson is set to be delisted by Geelong. Picture: Michael Klein

The future of out-of-contract Geelong veteran Lachie Henderson will be determined in the coming days as next Thursday’s AFL list lodgement deadline looms.

It is understood Henderson, who has been out of the country on holiday, will not be offered a new deal with the Cats.

The 29-year-old was part of the senior team for Geelong’s preliminary final against Richmond after Tom Hawkins was suspended, but prior to that had spent most of the 2019 season in the VFL.

Henderson played a total of 54 games with the Cats since crossing to the club at the end of 2015, however a combination of form and injury issues meant that he managed only 13 senior matches in the past two seasons.

The former Brisbane and Carlton swingman has spent time in Queensland and overseas in the off-season and would now need a club to take a chance on him as a delisted free agent or as a rookie if he was to continue into a thirteenth AFL season.

Lachie Henderson is set to be delisted by Geelong. Picture: Michael Klein

Henderson, who hails from Birregurra and was taken by the Lions with pick 8 in the 2007 draft, has racked up 171 AFL matches and would still be seen as a valuable asset by certain clubs in the market for a key position player capable of playing at either end of the ground.

The likely forthcoming departure of Henderson will mean all of Geelong’s uncontracted players from 2019 will have been re-signed, traded or delisted, which comes as the club confirmed it had held preliminary discussions with injury-prone speedster Harley Bennell.

While the Cats are investigating the merits of adding a player of Bennell’s talent to its squad, they will not be picking him up as a delisted free agent when that window opens next Friday.

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Instead Geelong will monitor the 27-year-old’s progress during the summer months while remaining open to the possibility of finding a spot on its rookie list via one of the available mechanisms under the right circumstances.

The Cats have two players — Sam Simpson and Zach Guthrie — who are all but guaranteed of being promoted to the senior list having now served the maximum amount of time eligible on the rookie list, with a decision on the emerging duo to be made next week.

All clubs must submit their initial lists by 2pm next Thursday, at which point the delisted free-agency period commences.

Originally published as Lachie Henderson won’t be offered a contract by Geelong for 2020 season