{"id":313160,"date":"2025-11-27T23:32:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313160\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T23:32:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:32:24","slug":"ex-swans-midfielder-joins-cross-town-rivals-to-keep-afl-dream-alive-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313160\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Swans midfielder joins cross-town rivals to keep AFL dream alive – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Swan and Glenelg midfielder James Bell<\/a> has signed with GWS’ VFL unit for 2026, and will train with the club’s AFL<\/a> program in a bid to return to the top flight.<\/p>\n

Bell burst onto the scene as a Sydney Academy graduate in 2018, playing 28 AFL<\/a> games across five seasons.<\/p>\n

However, the 26-year-old was delisted at the end of 2022, opening the door for a switch of states, heading to South Australia to play for powerhouse Glenelg.<\/p>\n

Bell played a pivotal role in claiming back-to-back premierships in his first two seasons at the Tigers, before finishing runners-up to Sturt in 2025.<\/p>\n

His joining of the Giants comes as Bell wants to keep his AFL<\/a> dream alive, and believes joining an AFL-affiliate reserves side could improve his chances.<\/p>\n

\"Ex-SwanJames Bell of the Glenelg Tigers in the SANFL, 2024 (Image via Glenelg FC)<\/p>\n

“It’s great to be adding someone with James’ experience and talent to our program,” Giants Head of Talent Adrian Caruso said.<\/p>\n

“Not only has he played at the highest level and played almost 30 games of AFL<\/a> footy, but he’s been part of a really successful program at Glenelg in the SANFL, and we’re excited about how he can help our program in 2026.<\/p>\n

“He’s tough, powerful, and has a great attack on the footy, and he’ll add some real grunt and leadership to our midfield.<\/p>\n

“James still has the desire to play at the highest level, and training in our AFL<\/a> program and performing in what we believe will be an exciting and strong VFL team will hopefully help give him that opportunity to try and get back into the AFL<\/a> system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Swan and Glenelg midfielder James Bell has signed with GWS’ VFL unit for 2026, and will train…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-313160","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\/313160","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=313160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}