Infacet Cats hero’s unimaginable redemption story

ULTIMATE GUIDE: AFL grand ultimate 2022

With his AFL dream in tatters, Stengle turned to the membership that had helped him initially forge a path into the massive leagues: the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles within the SANFL.

Stengle had been a junior there earlier than being drafted by Richmond in 2017, and with Betts and his spouse Anna appearing as Stengle’s pseudo managers, the membership was very happy to have him again.

”We got him into the club on the understanding that we were getting him into a structured environment where he had employment and a regular routine, which was really the key for him at that point in time in his life,” Eagles soccer director Dave Couzner informed Wide World of Sports.

“He worked at the club in a training capacity in the football department and that was doing from match-day analysis to putting all the stats into the system. He worked heavily with Jay Sheedy, the senior coach, to do all of that.

“It created the construction and routine for him to have the ability to play good footy and that was the entire objective of why we did it.”

Betts and his wife’s role in Stengle’s life is no secret, and it’s no surprise that Stengle has found his best football when re-united with Betts at Geelong this season, where he has blossomed into one of the AFL’s most damaging crumbing forwards.

“Having Eddie round on the membership is admittedly good and helps me as an individual and as a footy participant on the sphere as properly,” Stengle told Wide World of Sports.

“Just having that household vibe across the membership with him there helps me as properly as a result of clearly I’m away from Adelaide.”

Couzner found it hard to put in words just how pivotal the Betts family has been in Stengle getting his life back on track.

“They’re not solely mentors, they’re nearly like dad and mom for Tyson. They have his greatest pursuits at coronary heart,” he said.

“In my dealings with Anna, Tyson’s wellbeing is all the time the primary level of dialog, footy is secondary, it all the time has been.

“To find people like that, they’re quite rare in society. They do it behind the scenes as well, they’re not there for the accolades, they just really care for the person.”

While Stengle is admittedly “stoked” to be enjoying on the largest stage come Saturday, he mentioned the journey again to the highest hadn’t been straightforward.

When requested what he’d say if somebody informed him 12 months in the past that he’d be enjoying in an AFL grand ultimate, he mentioned he’d “probably tell them they’re kidding themselves”.

“I didn’t even know if I was going to be on a list at this time last year. It’s pretty amazing to get into a grand final,” he recalled.

“It (being sacked by Adelaide) was pretty tough. I had to work at the footy club I was playing at, and they gave me a lot of help. I can’t thank them enough, the Eagles footy club.

“I used to be simply striving to play good footy and I used to be simply striving to win a premiership with them and we ended up doing that. That was my principal focus and the remaining I simply let the remaining kind itself out.”

Couzner and the Eagles were undoubtedly thrilled to get a talent such as Stengle through the door, but he stressed the most important aspect of the move at the time was to get some structure back in the troubled youngster’s life.

“We definitely wished him so we had been a really celebration, however our discussions with Anna and Eddie had been about the way it regarded for Tyson,” he said.

“What had been we creating? If it was simply coming again to play footy, then that wasn’t the precise factor for Tyson on the time.

“We needed to create the culture behind him and we have a pretty strong culture at the Woodville-West Torrens footy club where he had to come in and fit with that, and he did that with no issues at all.”

Five months had elapsed between Stengle being charged by the AFL for conduct unbecoming in October 2020 and his Crows sacking in March 2021 and Couzner mentioned having his soccer future in flux for therefore lengthy had left Stengle “shattered” when he arrived on the Eagles.

Couzner had the chance to current Stengle his Eagles guernsey previous to the beginning of his SANFL journey final season, and says it took no time for the teen to slot in.

“Just to see the smile on his face, you could see he felt a part of the club,” he recalled.

“He came back in and fit in really well and that’s probably why he had the success he did that year.

“He is a kind of guys that is very quiet and shy and over time the extra you’re employed with him and the extra you speak to him, the higher he turns into.

“He is a person that relies on trust and if he trusts you you’ll get a lot out of him, if he doesn’t, he can tend to be very quiet and withdrawn.

“He undoubtedly would not promote himself and that is a extremely good high quality of Tyson.”

After a stellar season where he helped the Eagles win a second consecutive SANFL premiership, Stengle was handed an AFL lifeline by Geelong, who by that point had employed none other than Eddie Betts as an assistant.

It was the perfect match. Stengle has turned in a season for the ages, going from the state leagues to the AFL’s All-Australian team in his first year back after kicking 49 goals in 24 appearances, including three in last weekend’s preliminary final win over Brisbane.

“I’m not throughout each story within the AFL, however it have to be one if it tops that one,” Geelong coach Chris Scott said of Stengle’s redemption story.

“That (the redemption story) wasn’t a thought bubble each time we took him. That was a multi-year course of to guarantee that we may (not solely) give him a chance to revitalise his soccer profession … however to get (his) life again on observe.

“That is one thing I look at with the way our club does things and I’m just full of admiration for it. We’ve got their back.

“If it did not work out for him, we’d’ve achieved the whole lot we may to guarantee that his life was higher for having been at Geelong.

“It’s nice when the football stuff works out … but there are some things that Geelong people should be proud of that we try not to promote too much.

“It’s one factor to say, ‘I believe this might work’, it is one other factor to place the individuals round him to guarantee that we observe by means of.

“We can say hand on heart if you come to our club, the football might not work out, but you’ll be better for it.

“The credit score ought to go to Tyson, let’s be clear on that, he is simply been excellent.

“The lesson for me is, you look around the league and you see and hear things around the comp and I think people rush to judgement way too much.”

As a results of his success on the membership and lovable persona, Stengle has turned the Woodville-West Torrens right into a Geelong supporter-base.

“We couldn’t be any more proud as a club,” Couzner mentioned.

“I think everyone at the Woodville-West Torrens club is going for Geelong on the weekend.

“We simply need to see Tyson succeed. He’s a implausible lad and he is an enormous a part of our membership. Even although he is over at Geelong, he is nonetheless a favorite son of ours.

Footy followers swarm Melbourne forward of Grand Final

“We’re just praying that he gets some success because he really does deserve it. He’s a kid that’s put in the work and he deserves everything that’s coming his way if he wins the flag.

“His expertise’s all the time been there, it is the stuff he is needed to do off the sphere that makes him a top quality particular person now.”

Couzner admitted the club hopes to have Stengle back playing one day, but accepted the fact that that day may be over a decade away if he keeps up his current form.

“You know what? We’d be the primary ones to say maintain doing it as a result of we love watching him play,” he said.

“He’s a child that works exhausting at his craft and it is simply nice to see him get the alternatives.”

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!

The greatest controversies in AFL historical past