sport news AFL legends Eddie Betts and Damien Hardwick on Geelong star Tyson Stengle's ... trends now
AFL greats have highlighted Cats star Tyson Stengle's meteoric rise from being dropped over two drug busts to being named an All Australian as he played a big role in helping Geelong reach this year's grand final.
The former Crow and Tiger was delisted by Adelaide in 2021 after a string of serious off-field incidents in a matter of months, including drink driving and twice being caught with an illicit substance.
Adelaide were essentially left with no choice but to release the prodigiously talented forward, but based on the recommendation by assistant coach Eddie Betts, Geelong eagerly added him to their already high-powered forward line in the preseaosn.
As one of Stengle's closest friends - and an apparent father figure to the Indigenous forward - Betts knew his distant relative had the 'potential to be a great man'.
Eddie Betts (left) and wife Anna are very close with Cats star Tyson Stengle (right), with Betts revealing how devastated he was over the All Australian's off-field problems in 2020
Tyson Stengle (right, pictured with Cats teammate Tom Hawkins) is the first-ever delisted free agent to be announced as All Australian the next year
Betts has now revealed his devastated reaction when he discovered Stengle was caught with an illicit substance.
'It was tough when those incidents started to occur,' Betts told the Herald Sun over the string of events that led to Stengle's sacking from the Crows.
'I looked on my phone one day and there was a story about an Adelaide player who had been done for drugs.
'It didn't say who it was and as I was waiting for it to load I was thinking, "Please don't be Tyson, please don't be Tyson". And then it came up as Tyson Stengle. F***,' said Betts of the 2020 incident.
Close mates Tyson Stengle (left) and Eddie Betts celebrate a goal for the Crows in 2019
Stengle and teammate Brad Crouch were caught by police with an illicit substance in the Adelaide CBD on a night out in September 2020.
He was then seen in front of a plate holding an allegedly illicit substance three months later, after he'd been arrested for several driving charges in April of that year.
The precocious forward had been stopped by police for driving an unregistered car, and was then found to have a blood alcohol reading of 0.125 - but
