{"id":495525,"date":"2026-02-21T22:25:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495525\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T22:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:25:29","slug":"former-collingwood-star-overlooked-by-port-adelaide-ahead-of-afl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495525\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Collingwood star overlooked by Port Adelaide ahead of AFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/collingwood\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Collingwood<\/a> star Jaidyn Stephenson&#8217;s attempt at an AFL comeback has been derailed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/port-adelaide\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Port Adelaide<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old had been training with the Power over the summer, but this weekend officially decided against adding the former number six pick to their list, according to Tom Morris.<\/p>\n<p>It comes as a somewhat surprising decision, after many believed Stephenson was almost a certainty to join the club ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Stephenson retired at the end of the 2024 season after a 122-game career with both Collingwood and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/north-melbourne\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/richmond\/news\/dustin-dusty-martin-next-move-post-afl-revealed-yarrawonga-pigeons\/a0fe8616140e9c74019fe2ed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dustin Martin&#8217;s next move post-AFL revealed<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2025 Stephenson returned to local footy, plying his trade for Ferntree Gully in Eastern Football Netball League in south-eastern Victoria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Collingwood star Jaidyn Stephenson&#8217;s attempt at an AFL comeback has been derailed by Port Adelaide.\u00a0 The 27-year-old&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-495525","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\/495525","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=495525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}