Chris Scott has made clear that “there is a limit” to the support that he and the Geelong Cats can provide Tyson Stengle in his quest to return to the AFL.
The premiership forward has been absent for the Cats this season and has only featured in one VFL game, where he kicked four goals, due to personal reasons.
Tyson Stengle celebrates kicking a goal last season. Cameron Spencer
The Cats have not rushed Stengle as he works to get back to the AFL, although the club has made clear that he knows the obligations he agreed to in his contract.
Stengle’s current deal is set to expire at the end of 2029; however, it does not look as though he will be returning to the AFL any time soon under Scott’s leadership.
“He’s been miles off being available for AFL selection, so it sort of hasn’t crossed my desk,” Scott told reporters on Monday.
“I suspect it really won’t until that becomes a bit more of a viable situation. We’re not there yet.”
As much as the coach hopes to see Stengle fit and firing, he admitted that the biggest priority for the 27-year-old is aiding his own welfare.
“You shouldn’t mistake the real priority that we place on player welfare for forgetting that we’re also in a high-performance industry where we have high expectations of our players and our people so that we can perform as well as possible,” Scott said.
“I’ve got so much admiration for the players that can just persevere through the ups and downs as well as they do.
“It is a bit of a surprise to me you don’t have more players just saying: ‘Look, I’m finding this too tough at the moment’.
“My take on where Tyson is at, that’s how he’s feeling about his football life at the moment; it’s just all a little bit hard for him.
“But there is a limit to our support with that because we’re like, ‘Hey man, we empathise with you; this is a tough game’. But there are limits to where our empathy takes us because we’re not a charity, as much as we’d like to be.”
Scott was asked if Stengle’s situation should be an AFL matter or remain a club matter, to which he admitted he was not the right person to answer that.
He then confirmed that while Stengle remains unavailable, the Cats will likely see Tom Stewart and Bailey Smith back to face the Brisbane Lions on Thursday.