CATS RECRUITMENT GURU TAKES TIME OUT
Geelong recruiting guru takes time out
LEGENDARY recruiting guru Stephen Wells will take some time away from his role with Geelong to weigh up his future with the club.
The Cats list boss has not stepped down from his post permanently but has been away from the football department this week.
A veteran of the industry, Wells started at the Cats in 1984 before taking on the role of recruiting manager in 1995.
The club is open to Wells considering his future and will happily allow him to decide what is the best way to either continue in his job or go in a new direction.
There is potential he could take a different role with less pressure and expectation or simply return to his post.
Like many others in football, it is believed the up-ended 2020 season may have made him take stock of his role.
Wells didn’t travel into the Queensland hub with the Cats but was one of many stood down from his job as coronavirus hit the football world.
While the football season — and underage football — is just beginning, April is often a time for recruiters to take holidays or time off given the strains of the job in the back end of the year.
Considered one of the architects of Geelong’s success over the past two decades, Wells is revered as one of the most important members of the off-field brigade at the club.
He is a life member of Geelong, was handed the Reg Hickey Award by the Cats in 2008 for services to football and was honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the AFL Coaches Association in 2019.
“Being fortunate enough to spend so much of my life in the football industry and at Geelong has been a great reward in itself,” he said then.
“The club has been very good to me over the years, and the fraternity within the AFL is very close and full of great people.”
A star local cricketer and footballer before his days as an official, Wells took over the job of recruiting from another legendary figure in Bill McMaster.