\n Leo Connolly has landed at the Swinburne Centre, signing on with Richmond’s VFL side for 2026.\n <\/p>\n
\n By Henry Milic, Richmond Media\n <\/p>\n
Former St Kilda player Leo Connolly has put pen to paper, making him Richmond\u2019s latest recruit for the 2026 VFL season.<\/p>\n
Drafted by the Saints with the 64th overall pick in the 2019 AFL draft, Connolly went on to feature in seven games across four seasons at Moorabbin, averaging 12 disposals.<\/p>\n
He made his AFL debut in Round 15 of the 2021 season, taking to the field as the medical substitute, delivering an impressive first performance at the elite level. He went on to play the next seven games before a concussion in Round 21 brought his promising season to an early end.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old made his way to Punt Road through his connection with Jake Batchelor, Richmond\u2019s former VFL Coach and current AFL Assistant Coach, whom he previously worked with during their time at Sandringham. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the year, I was talking to Jake Batchelor. I had him at Sandy (Sandringham) when I was on St Kilda\u2019s list and was talking to him about potentially playing VFL here next year,\u201d Connolly told Richmond Media. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing led to another, and I came down and had a meeting with a few people and absolutely loved the thought of playing here next year and decided that this was the right fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a two-year hiatus from competitive football, Connolly returned from an overseas stint in England. Now back on home soil, he is adamant that his love for the game still burns bright.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is just exciting to be back in a professional workspace again, in terms of footy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been nearly two years since I played some proper footy, having spent last year in England playing cricket just for fun, and this year not getting too many games on the park because of injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting the desire back to play proper footy is what has excited me, and to be a part of a really good club makes it exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connolly had a standout year with the Sandringham Zebras in 2022, finishing second in the Club\u2019s Best and Fairest count, just one vote shy of the winner.<\/p>\n
Tiger fans can expect to see Connolly\u2019s elite decision-making skills off half back, coupled with precise disposal efficiency by foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo Connolly has landed at the Swinburne Centre, signing on with Richmond’s VFL side for 2026. By Henry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-281163","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","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281163","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=281163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}