{"id":495603,"date":"2026-02-21T23:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495603\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T23:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:19:09","slug":"ex-afl-rising-star-jaidyn-stephenson-speaks-after-port-adelaide-opt-against-offering-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495603\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-AFL rising star Jaidyn Stephenson speaks after Port Adelaide opt against offering contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former rising star winner Jaidyn Stephenson has shared a positive outlook after being dealt a setback in his bid to return to the AFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

News emerged on Saturday that the 27-year-old had missed out on a spot on Port Adelaide\u2019s list following nearly three months on trial.<\/p>\n

Stephenson initially retired from the league at the end of 2024 and sought to make a comeback for this season after spending last year in local footy.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Three weeks ago he was reported as a \u201c$1.03 chance\u201d to land a spot but he has instead been let go just two weeks out from the new campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo save me answering all the messages, unfortunately I haven\u2019t been offered a spot at Port,\u201d Stephenson confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very appreciative of the opportunity Port Adelaide gave me to train on and have made some great friends in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWishing the club all the best for season 2026 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephenson made himself a target up forward in intraclubs and kicked two goals last week.<\/p>\n

But he missed out on selection to a top-level scratch match against the Crows on Friday, instead kicking two more goals in the corresponding reserves clash.<\/p>\n

His exit leaves East Fremantle small forward Mitch Zadow, ex-Geelong midfielder Ted Clohesy and Norwood defender Balyn O\u2019Brien as Port\u2019s remaining train-on players.<\/p>\n

Stephenson, who kicked 38 goals in his first AFL season, racked up 122 games with the Pies and North Melbourne before stepping away.<\/p>\n

He had impressed Port forward Jack Lukosius early in his train-on stint.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely still got all the talent that made him a great player early in his career,\u201d Lukosius said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he has come in with kind of everything you\u2019d want from a train-on \u2014 he\u2019s been training hard, doing all his extras, and ticking every box.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he\u2019s putting his best foot forward, that\u2019s for sure, and I think the group has accepted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t stood out that he\u2019s played local footy last year at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s come in in a good spot. I think he must have done the work back end of the year into the off-season to give himself every chance \u2014 he\u2019s looking like an AFL footballer.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Long-term fears as prized West Coast youngster goes down<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

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

St Kilda legend \u2018hoping\u2019 off-season moves create \u2018problem\u2019<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former rising star winner Jaidyn Stephenson has shared a positive outlook after being dealt a setback in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,53746,64,63,55,639,1625,46529,3863,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-495603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-afl-trades","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-port-adelaide-football-club","16":"tag-sponsored-content","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495603","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=495603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}