{"id":152375,"date":"2025-09-18T15:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152375\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:50:08","slug":"jaidyn-stephenson-considering-shock-comeback-after-retiring-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152375\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaidyn Stephenson considering shock comeback after retiring in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired AFL<\/a> player Jaidyn Stephenson has reportedly contacted multiple clubs about potentially returning to the game in 2026. <\/p>\n

The 26-year-old announced last October that he was hanging up the boots, stating that he had lost his passion for the game.<\/p>\n

It came after a tumultuous few seasons at North Melbourne<\/a>, where he struggled with form and spent time in the VFL.<\/p>\n

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The Age is reporting<\/a> that Stephenson has personally approached multiple AFL clubs, including Carlton<\/a> and Port Adelaide<\/a>, to see if they would be willing to offer him a list spot for 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Jaidyn<\/p>\n

Jaidyn Stephenson of the Kangaroos.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He burst onto the scene as a teenager, winning the AFL’s Rising Star award in his first season with Collingwood<\/a>, kicking 38 goals.<\/p>\n

However, in his second season of footy he was suspended for 12 matches and fined $20,000 for placing bets on AFL matches.<\/p>\n

In 2021, he broke his hip after falling from a bicycle while performing boozy stunts in his backyard.<\/p>\n

Stephenson represented Ferntree Gully in the Eastern Football League in 2025, captaining the division three side.<\/p>\n

If he is to earn an AFL lifeline, it would likely come in the form of a pre-season supplementary spot after training with a team over summer.<\/p>\n

Stephenson played 122 career games, kicking 130 AFL goals for the Roos and Magpies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired AFL player Jaidyn Stephenson has reportedly contacted multiple clubs about potentially returning to the game in 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-152375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}