Stinear on his first months at Geelong

I am loving it, it has been a great change up.

I am excited to get to meet a lot of new people, the women's team are pretty eager. They are all competitors and they are raring to go, so it has been nice getting to know a lot of new people.

The club is in a really good spot overall, and the women's program is in a really exciting space. We have seven new players coming in, an existing core group full of talent and after having a few seasons of missing out on playing Finals, there is that hunger and drive to want to get better.

I feel like our women's program is probably the best resourced that it has been since its inception, so we have got the foundation in a good spot but now we have to put the hard work in. 

Stinear what he noticed externally about Geelong

Externally watching Geelong, I think from very early on they have had high quality people involved in the program and the players they have recruited over the years.

But the sense of community was probably always really strong from an external point of view, really good support from the community, the club perspective and what they were doing from when the program first started.

Little things like attention to detail on facilities and how the women's program was promoted, I have always thought that was done really well.

Then with what the footy industry is like, there is a lot of people that I have worked with that are now working at Geelong or have worked at Geelong previously and came through Melbourne. They were always really impressive people, so probably the quality of person is something that I have always associated with Geelong.

Stinear on Geelong's new faces

It is a really exciting draft crop with Evie Cowcher, Priya Bowering and Renee Morgan.

They had really strong years over the last couple of seasons with their Under 18 and Under 17 form. They are going to add something straight away, they all just love the game and have grown up playing it.

They are really skilful, so that injection of young talent is going to be exciting.

Bringing in players like Jasmine Stewart and Alyssa Brook from Port Adelaide, they have had a successful program at Port Adelaide over recent seasons.

Nicola Stevens coming from St Kilda, a wealth of experience and a player who is really calm and collected. She is vocal out on the field and has a genuine love for the game, I think she is a great fit for where our group is at the moment.

Then Emma Murray who had a really dominant season back home in Gaelic Footy, and we are looking forward to bringing her in.

Stinear on the 2026 AFLW coaching panel

I think it is a really good coaching mix.

Having Elise Coventry in there with her experience and her intimate knowledge of the program, and how women's footy began here. That has been a real asset.

Sam Simpson who is a fresh face to our women's program but a familiar face around the club, that is a massive advantage. Just the crossover with the men's program, the conversations that flow, the shared ideas and experiences and you can see he is already going to be a great coach with the way he sees the game.

Then Ryan Pendlebury, he is coming off a successful few years at North Melbourne and brings a lot of experience. He is still playing as well at St Mary's, so just that relatability and shared experience that he can have with the players.

I think their appetite and love of the game is really rubbing off on our group already, they are already in here putting in the extra hours and wanting to up-skill the players.

That becomes infectious around the group, so it is a good time of year for us as coaches to work on our dynamic and get to know each other, with how we want to coach. I think we are going to complement each other really well.