{"id":894744,"date":"2026-09-17T01:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/894744\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T01:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:28:16","slug":"afl-trade-news-rumours-whispers-2026-toby-greene-confirms-he-wants-to-leave-gws-giants-keen-to-link-up-with-geelong-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/894744\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL trade news, rumours, whispers 2026: Toby Greene confirms he wants to leave GWS Giants, keen to link up with Geelong Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toby Greene \u2014 an inaugural Giants player, current GWS captain and the club\u2019s greatest ever player \u2014 has made a call on his AFL future, opting to return to Victoria for family reasons.<\/p>\n

Giants chief executive Dave Matthews on SEN\u2019s Whateley on Thursday morning confirmed Greene would exercise his free agency rights next month.<\/p>\n

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In a separate statement, the Giants said Greene was keen to link up with Geelong \u2014 the club which close friend and ex-Giant Jeremy Cameron plays for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Giants have been advised by Toby Greene of his intention to move back to Victoria for family reasons with a view to join the Geelong Football Club,\u201d a club statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club will make no further comment at this stage and will work with Toby and his manager regarding his availability to media.\u201d<\/p>\n

It means Greene will depart after 15 seasons at the Giants, who drafted the Oakleigh Chargers product with Pick 11 in the 2011 draft.<\/p>\n

Toby Greene of the Giants. Picture: Mark Metcalfe via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n

A triple All-Australian and dual best and fairest winner, Greene has kicked 450 goals from a club-record 282 games for the Giants.<\/p>\n

Speaking on SEN on Thursday morning, Matthews \u2014 who\u2019ll also leave the club in the coming months \u2014 confirmed the news after receiving a phone call from Greene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working together since the day of the draft in November 2011. It\u2019s been a long journey,\u201d Matthews told SEN\u2019s Whateley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about where the club has got to and the regret we\u2019ve got about not securing a premiership.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been an enormous figure for our club and done everything possible, not just for the Giants, but for the AFL as well to grow this club and our presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got nothing but respect for him<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d love him to be a one-club player \u2026 but we understand the decision he\u2019s made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene\u2019s departure is one of several key list decisions for the Giants, who now appear destined for an off-season reset.<\/p>\n

Jake Stringer confirms exit from Giants | 00:39<\/p>\n

The club and veteran Jake Stringer have mutually agreed to part ways, while key forward Jesse Hogan and ruck Kieren Briggs are eyeing moves to Collingwood and Richmond respectively. Reports also emerged this week the Giants were open to offers for defensive duo Lachie Whitfield and Harry Himmelberg.<\/p>\n

Greene\u2019s call looms as a coup for the Cats, who recently missed out on Zak Butters after the Port Adelaide restricted free agent selected Western Bulldogs as his preferred destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really excited Toby wants to join the Geelong Football Club,\u201d Cats football boss Andrew Mackie said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know this was a significant decision for Toby and his family, and we recognise what the Giants have meant to him and respect the contribution he has made to their club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking forward to helping Toby write the next chapter of his career at the Cats.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toby Greene \u2014 an inaugural Giants player, current GWS captain and the club\u2019s greatest ever player \u2014 has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-894744","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\/894744","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=894744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}