{"id":350012,"date":"2025-12-15T17:49:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350012\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:49:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:49:20","slug":"inside-port-adelaides-pitch-to-forgotten-afl-midfielder-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350012\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Port Adelaide’s pitch to forgotten AFL midfielder – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Port Adelaide recruit Will Brodie<\/a> was all but destined for a Fremantle departure as soon as Josh Carr<\/a> assumed the Power duties from Ken Hinkley.<\/p>\n

Carr became Port Adelaide’s head coach after Hinkley stepped away from a glittering career, but his recruitment of Brodie began much earlier.<\/p>\n

The Murray Bushranger was part of an unusual trade that saw Fremantle collect Pick 103<\/a> in exchange for the established midfielder.<\/p>\n

The pair spent time together at the Dockers, where Carr was an assistant coach for three seasons before crossing state lines.<\/p>\n

“Throughout the year, being in contact with Carry, and the idea of coming here and speaking through it with my manager,” Brodie said.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

“It became pretty clear that it was the best option for me. We worked through it. It was pretty simple in the end. Grateful it all happened pretty smoothly.”<\/p>\n

Brodie had developed a “great relationship” with the freshly minted Power senior coach in Western Australia, who always had belief he could make it at AFL<\/a> level.<\/p>\n

“He said he believes in me, and there’s another opportunity to come here and give it a go,” the 27-year-old said.<\/p>\n

“Potentially play a role that suits me. It’s all it really took. I was at a point where I was craving some more opportunity and the idea of a fresh start, I was willing to jump at.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t too serious coming here until last season, as he took over the coaching job, maybe it ramped up a little bit, and discussions got more serious, and then my manager got involved.”<\/p>\n

The former top 10 selection has faced AFL<\/a> exile over the past three seasons, despite a career-best campaign in 2022.<\/p>\n

Brodie played 25 games for Gold Coast in five years before a move to the Dockers, and although featuring in every match in 2022, he was rarely seen as Justin Longmuir<\/a> favoured the likes of Caleb Serong<\/a>, Andrew Brayshaw<\/a> and Hayden Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the Shepparton product is confident he can return to his best, and reuniting with Carr at Port Adelaide could be the best environment.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s tough,” he said. “You have that hope that things will change, and trying to improve in areas of my game that I can, so when the opportunity did come, you’d be ready.<\/p>\n

“I’ve moved through that (period) well.<\/p>\n

“I’m capable of getting back to that form. I’ve been working on some things in my game. It was a tough midfield to get into there at Freo. There was studs in there. As there is here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m going to keep trying to work and earn whatever I can get.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide recruit Will Brodie was all but destined for a Fremantle departure as soon as Josh Carr…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-350012","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\/350012","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=350012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}