Geelong has handed Tyson Stengle a two-year deal after Crows officially delist him
Geelong has put their full faith in sacked ex-Crow Tyson Stengle handing him a multi-year deal as he prepares to move in with Eddie Betts and his family.
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Geelong has handed sacked Adelaide small forward Tyson Stengle a two-year deal as a show of faith after the Crows officially dropped him off their primary list on Friday.
Stengle is set to move in with Eddie Betts’ family in Melbourne ahead of his first pre-season at Geelong, after a brilliant 44-goal season in the SANFL.
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The Cats had to wait for Adelaide to officially delist him at Friday’s list lodgements before they could secure him as a delisted free agent but had already come to an agreement to lure him to Geelong despite rival interest.
Those overtures from clubs including Essendon meant Stengle was able to secure a two-season deal despite a trio of controversies that saw him part ways with the Crows.
His manager Garry Winter told the Herald Sun on Friday he was proud of Stengle’s resilience to absorb the decision then go away and work his backside off to get fit.
He has worked hard to improve himself on and off the field and with Betts joining the Cats in a part-time role it is the perfect landing spot to rejuvenate his career.
“I have been so impressed with him. After all the stuff he had to deal with, I am really proud of how he dug deep.
“He trained as hard as he could and put in the biggest pre-season of his life to be the fittest he had ever been and he’s continue with that program now. He knows he has been given a great second chance. He’s a kid that just kicks goals. His record is there across all levels. If he can kick a couple of goals a game he will be more than doing his part at Geelong.
“He’s a really nice kid but he’s very shy and he barely says two words, so his biggest support is going to be Eddie and the Betts family. He is like family to them. But midway through the year if he can get himself settled we will talk about moving him down to Geelong or somewhere in Melbourne but closer in that direction.”
Stengle has lived in Melbourne before as a Richmond player before he was traded to Adelaide on the second-last day of the 2018 trade period.
But after a drink-driving episode and being caught with drugs alongside Crows teammate Brad Crouch he was eventually let go by the Crows.
Why Cats have given up fight to play finals in Geelong
New Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking has parked the club’s persistent lobbying for a home final at GMHBA Stadium despite the old Kardinia Park’s new 40,000-seat capacity by 2023.
Hocking said in his first extensive interview as Cats chief executive he would not waste time pushing the AFL on what is seemingly a futile mission.
Former Cats president Colin Carter was furious at the AFL for its failure to hand the club a home-ground advantage in finals, with coach Chris Scott also upset at the double standard with non-Victorian venues.
But Hocking said that push would now end despite the stage 5 development handing the city a venue third only to the MCG and Marvel Stadium for seating capacity in Melbourne.
“In my time as CEO at Geelong that will be an AFL decision,” he said.
“I am not sure it’s a departure, I have an opportunity to support the AFL, we are part of a big ecosystem. And we will play our role within that. That is our duty but at the same time making sure all of our members get access to outstanding games at GMHBA Stadium.
“We are going to have the third-biggest stadium in the state, which we will all welcome in Geelong.”
At some stage over the next two years capacity at GMHBA Stadium will be reduced to 26,000 fans depending on the speed of the works but Hocking said it would more likely be in the 2023 season.
“It’s going to complete the stadium. Hopefully you get a sense of how excited we are about stage five. Talk about a legacy piece. It will be a fully completed stadium and a jewel in the region.
“It’s going to afford the whole of Geelong a range of different events. We are committed to nine games at GMHBA Stadium.”
The newly finished facility will also mean the Cats pursue an alternative training facility for the AFL and AFLW teams given a range of events including the Big Bash over summer.
The Cats could attempt to find something in the Kardinia Park precinct or solidify their relationship with Deakin University, where they sometimes train when GMHBA Stadium is not available.
Hocking is also keen to fast-track the club’s AFLW team into a full-time professional side, aware clubs need to explore ways to help their players.
“We have to be really strong on that. I came through an era whereby I was semi-professional and it was really difficult. It’s not lost on me. I ran a bricklaying and landscaping business through that period (when he played 199 games for Geelong) and it’s even harder now. So as a club, we can’t continue to look at the AFL to be leading on that.
New Cats’ boss’ plans for AFL domination
Steve Hocking’s wife knew he would go stir crazy if she didn’t intervene this past July.
Forced into gardening leave by the AFL after he accepted a position as Geelong’s next chief executive, he had four months of lockdown with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
So his wife bought him a flash new bike to allow him to punch out countless laps within 5km of his Williamstown house.
For Hocking, it was his first real break after four exhausting years as the AFL’s football boss crisscrossing the country attempting to save the look of the game and its existence from the threat of Covid-19.
You can bet his mind was whirring as fast as those tyres as he rode through the backstreets of Williamstown with Geelong’s future on his mind.
As Hocking joked in his first extensive interview about his vision for Geelong on Friday, the bike hasn’t been out of the shed in his three weeks back at GMHBA Stadium.
And after former Cats football boss Hocking watched the club’s flame-out in an 83-point preliminary final defeat, you can bet he isn’t ready to be a steady hand at the tiller.
As Hocking says, his philosophy is about action.
On his to-do list is building Geelong’s membership base to 100,000, “bouncing out of Covid”, sparking innovation despite a tight football cap and finishing the rebuild of an eventual 40,000-seat GMHBA Stadium
But as for the rebuild of the ageing Geelong list, which in that preliminary final crushing had 11 players 30 or older?
Well, here is where it gets really interesting.
Hocking isn’t afraid of using the ‘R’ word — rebuild — admitting he will do what it takes to ensure Geelong still competes for a flag in 2022 without falling off the cliff so many believe is imminent.
“We have been one of the most successful clubs over the past decade and I think our members have that expectation,” Hocking said.
“One of the challenges is the closer you get to the top of the mountain, sometimes you can actually be getting further away.
“For me, I have a fresh set of eyes to come in and challenge some of our thinking around it.
“I think, during Covid, what Chris (Scott) has been able to do has been exceptional. The whole footy department has been unbelievable. It’s a Grand Final finish and a preliminary final finish. The supporters will look at the prelim and say it was 80-plus points. I get it.
“That is my point is that the closer you get to the mountain the further you can get from it. “We have got work ahead of us. We acknowledge we do need to evolve.
“It’s something we need to take responsibility for. We won’t shy away from it.
“It is incredible what we have been able to do with the list. It’s been rebuild from 2011-2015, it’s been rebuilt since 2015 and it will need to be rebuilt in the coming years as well. We are committed to that. You always want a foot planted in the now, but you also want a foot planted in the future.
“If I was going to highlight what I have seen, we personally have probably got a little bit too much planted in just now.
“So that’s an opportunity with the new CEO and new coaches as well. That resetting of the football program will be really healthy.”
Hocking says Geelong’s fans and players should know the specific aim is to again compete for a premiership in 2022.
But he says the focus on avoiding that cliff — the nine oldest line-ups in AFL history have all been Geelong sides in 2020-21 — will come from several areas.
First is the plan from list boss Stephen Wells to reinvigorate the list with five early picks this year as well as a strategy to continue recruiting and developing elite young talent.
But for Hocking it is also a willingness to examine everything at Geelong — including the determination to top up and compete every single season.
“At times, potentially we have got a little bit caught up in the legacy piece of what has gone before,” he said.
“The rear-view mirror has got a bit big and my job is to make the windscreen a bit larger. They (premierships) are so hard to win. It’s so difficult.
“People use language like ‘it’s a mistake’ or ‘the wrong decision’. I am glass-half-full, so there are great learnings for us in that.
“There is no doubt the current list can continue to challenge. My point around getting close is if you have a look at Melbourne — for 57 years, they got in the way of being able to win it.
“You have to break those shackles and risk a lot. So we need to take stock and understand where we want to go into the future.”
That phrase — caught up in the legacy piece — could have multiple interpretations.
For Hocking, it likely means examining the Geelong way to see whether it is the best chance of winning a fourth flag since 2007.
Is topping up to play finals every year giving the Cats the best chance to actually win the flag? Could they consider surging, as the Demons did, after securing elite talent through the early picks in the draft?
Is there a pattern to the finals trend, with eight of 10 losses in the first week since 2012 as well as four times where the Cats have lost in the first week, won backs-to-the-wall style in the next final then lost in the prelim?
Hocking is asked if there has been a staleness to the last few years.
“I think I was pretty honest. There was a legacy element to it. Probably, we have potentially got caught up in protecting that,” he said.
“You have to be adventurous. It’s one of our core values.”
All those challenging questions will be explored, as will rejigging the fitness and medical teams after a year where Patrick Dangerfield, Mitch Duncan and Jeremy Cameron all missed chunks of the season.
The club was fiercely defensive of Cameron playing despite tight hamstrings in July but the bottom line is the club’s star recruit didn’t debut until Round 6, suffered repeat injuries and only kicked five goals in three finals.
“The best ability is availability. We had so many players unavailable at different stages. We have work to do on that front. It’s an improvement area for us on fitness and medical,” he said.
“It is critical. You have to have all those parts working. You can’t have the best coaching model without having all the other parts working as well.”
Hocking won’t critique Geelong’s risk-averse ball movement last year, deferring to the coaching staff.
“The important thing for me is that I don’t get too deep into footy. It’s quite clear we are going to have a new coaching group. The evolution of the game plan will be part of that.”
But he does defend the club’s selection policies which saw Nathan Kreuger and Jordan Clark depart because of lack of opportunities.
“What I would say is, as far as the young talent goes, they also need to recognise they have to push through as well,” he said.
“How do they go beyond some of the senior cohort?
“Hopefully, it’s a balance of what is important on match day but also the development program that supports the young stars we need to develop. We are very committed to that.”
The Cats are open to considering whether they actually appoint line coaches to govern defence, midfield and attack, with Shaun Grigg to step up from development and James Kelly, Shane O’Bree and Nigel Lappin all part of the coaching panel.
Eddie Betts will join the club in a part-time capacity, with Geelong also appointing Chloe Wegener as the club’s new indigenous liaison officer.
The Cats are comfortable bringing in former Adelaide small forward Tyson Stengle despite a trio of offences that saw him sacked by the Crows.
“We have a strong history at Geelong in supporting players,” Hocking said.
“When you are dealing with talent, it’s important you get to demonstrate that talent, but secondly you need to put the right support system around them to realise that talent.
“That’s what we have committed to.”
Hocking inherits a club that now has a 12-month-a-year business with an AFLW team, as well as a group of staff exhausted by two solid years of work through a pandemic.
He has ambitious plans to revitalise his staff with shorter breaks in-season, rather than long holidays through the men’s off-season, believing the Cats can “get ahead of the game” with scheduled breaks.
And while he was part of an AFL administration that made savage cuts to football departments, he won’t use that as an excuse for failure to innovate at Geelong.
“Innovation and strategy has been one of the things that has been left at the door pretty quickly (across the AFL) because we got so focused on the soft cap and my first week or two in the building the comment was, “We can’t do that”. I would reply with, “Why not?”
“The comment was soft cap. We have a bucket of money to spend, what are we going to value, what are we going to spend it on.
“It’s changing some of that language in being caught up in where we have been and where we want to go. I am a future-focused person.”
The same staffers and coaches who stumbled to the line — utterly exhausted by months interstate these past two years — might feel aggrieved to be told to work harder and smarter after all they have given.
But it is Hocking’s way — challenge the status quo, ask the hard questions, occasionally put noses out of joint but relentless push forward to improve his organisation.
And the criticism that will come his way?
He couldn’t care less if he believes the end result justifies the means, as we saw with the league’s sub rule and well as rule changes which he believes helped make the Grand Final such a rollicking adventure.
So 38 years after he rocked up at the then-Kardinia Park to play 199 games as a back pocket, Hocking is back and ready to make an impact.
And anyone who has spent any time with a player who four times won the club’s most-determined award knows very little is going to get in his way.
Why Hocking doesn’t fear talk of Cats’ ‘slippery slope’
New Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking says Chris Scott is committed to spearheading the club’s chase for its next flag and eventual transition to youth as the coach closes in on a new two-year extension.
But Hocking says the club must lessen the load on Scott as it brings in a new assistant coaching staff full of innovation and fresh ideas.
The Cats are set to announce former Cats defender Matthew Egan in a key development role, have made overtures to tactical guru Ross Lyon and have lured back Harry Taylor in a high-performance role.
Hocking revealed on Friday the club was also looking to improve its medical and fitness program after several recent departures.
The Cats suffered key injuries this year including star recruit Jeremy Cameron’s repeat hamstring tweaks.
Hocking’s first three weeks as Brian Cook’s replacement have been full of big ideas and challenging conversations at Geelong as he prepares the club to “bounce out of Covid”.
Yet in his years as the AFL’s football boss he says he gained extra appreciation for Scott, whose two-year extension will lock him away until 2024.
“We are working through that with Chris currently. We are looking to extend him,” he said in his first extensive interview as Cats CEO.
“He will be extended. There is a contract in place for 2022 but we are committed to Chris.
“The big thing with Chris is, and I have worked right across 18 clubs so I think I am reasonably well placed to make this comment, he is in the top three or four coaches across the competition.
“If you have a look tactically at what he does game day, it’s exceptional.”
Hocking said there were a number of coaches across the competition who had commented on how difficult Scott was to coach against on game day.
“Now what we need to do is make sure he has refreshment (of coaches and ideas) around him. We are currently working through that,” Hocking said.
“It’s about putting some fresh ideas and new ideas and the freshness I bring around Chris and the program.
“The comment I would like to make is there is a lot of focus on Chris and I think as a CEO coming in, it’s important we have got a shared future.
“One of the easy things to do is jump off when things are going really well. People externally might be assessing Geelong and saying you know what, it’s a slippery slope from here. Chris has committed to our club continuing having success.
“His leadership and coaching and so forth is one of the best in the industry around that, but also other people need to carry some of that workload.”
The Cats are open to considering whether they actually appoint line coaches to govern defence, midfield and attack, with Shaun Grigg to step up from development and James Kelly, Shane O’Bree and Nigel Lappin all part of the coaching panel.
Eddie Betts will join the club in a part-time capacity, with Geelong also appointing Chloe Wegener as the club’s new Indigenous liaison officer.
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