Stengle on verge of returning to Geelong training

Tyson Stengle will likely return to Geelong training next week

The premiership Cat is yet to grace the field in 2026 after taking personal leave over the summer break.

He was back at training in January but has again been away from the club in recent times, returning to South Australia to see family.

SEN’s Sam Edmund reported on Stengle’s situation around a month ago, saying a failure to train consistently had kept him on the outer.

Now Tom Morris is suggesting that the 27-year-old small forward will be back training with the Cats soon as he strives for an AFL return at some stage this season.

“I don’t know exactly what the league has said to Tyson Stengle, but I do know that they stopped him playing VFL earlier in the season when Chris Scott was quite publicly pushing for him to return to play,” Morris said on SEN’s Fireball.

“I can tell you this morning that Stengle is back in Melbourne. He’s been in South Australia seeing family.

“He’s back this week and he’s planning to return to training at Geelong as early as next week. He would then need to have several weeks of training and conditioning before he can play VFL.

“Let’s hope this is the first step towards him getting back in the AFL team later on in the season.”

The former Tiger and Crow last played in the 2025 Grand Final loss to Brisbane where he had 12 touches and kicked two behinds.

Since joining the Cats prior to the 2022 season, Stengle has booted 160 goals in 93 games, returning 27 goals or more in each of his four seasons to date.