{"id":448725,"date":"2026-01-31T03:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448725\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T03:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:25:14","slug":"ex-magpie-backflips-on-eagles-contract-ditches-wa-for-sanfl-return-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448725\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Magpie backflips on Eagles contract, ditches WA for SANFL return &#8211; AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/games-centre\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"305\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" style=\"float:right;\" class=\"play-games-banner\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ZeroHanger_GamesCentre.png.webp.webp\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recently delisted Collingwood forward Ash Johnson has backflipped on his signing with West Coast&#8217;s WAFL side, renegotiating his contract to return home to South Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson will now line up for SANFL club Sturt in 2026, the state league&#8217;s reigning premiers and Johnson&#8217;s former club before he signed with Collingwood following his selection in the 2021 rookie draft.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson had committed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/teams\/west-coast-eagles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">West Coast Eagles<\/a> WAFL program on a two-year deal, anticipating to play for the reserves until 2027.<\/p>\n<p>However, with a desire to return to South Australia and back to Sturt, where Johnson played 15 games before his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> move, the Double Blues Football Manager Geoff Riddle successfully negotiated his release with West Coast to secure his return to the Unley-based outfit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled to welcome Ash back to the Club and look forward to seeing him pull on the Double Blue guernsey once again,&#8221; Riddle said.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson is a high-flying forward who spent five seasons at the Pies, playing 27 senior games, including all three finals games in 2022, kicking 36 goals throughout his career.<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Recently delisted Collingwood forward Ash Johnson has backflipped on his signing with West Coast&#8217;s WAFL side,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-448725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448725","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=448725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}