Trade talk: Free agent has already “all but agreed” to join Cats

SEN • May 2nd, 2025 6:42 pm

Hawthorn midfielder James Worpel will almost certainly join Geelong at the season’s end according to The Age’s Sam McClure.

The 26-year-old enters restricted free agency at the end of the season, and McClure thinks that Worpel already has his sights set on pulling on the hoops.

Having been drafted out of the Geelong Falcons, McClure thinks that the 131-gamer is an ideal fit in a Geelong midfield that struggled on the ball in the Round 7 loss to Carlton at the MCG.

Much like Geelong looked the only landing spot for Bailey Smith last off-season, McClure thinks the same will eventually play out for the 2019 best and fairest winner.

“The other one I want to talk about is James Worpel,” McClure told Tradies.

“The massacre in the centre square (against Carlton) at the MCG was overwhelming. I know Geelong have been trying to build in that area. Bailey Smith is a very good player and Max Holmes is a very good player, it’s not like they don’t have anyone in there, but they just got torched.”

“It speaks to why they went so hard for Clayton Oliver last year and I think they’ll probably have another sniff around, and this is no disrespect at all to James Worpel, but a cheaper version of Oliver could be him.

“This feels like Bailey Smith from last year. I think that deal is done. I think that James Worpel has all but agreed to life at Geelong.”

McClure’s co-host Mitch Cleary added that Geelong has been into Worpel for ‘some time’ as they continue to recruit players who hail from the greater Geelong region, particularly the Bellarine and surf coast regions.

“That’s pretty strong for Round 6,” Cleary added.

“They’ve been into him for some time with the Geelong links, he’s a Bannockburn boy,”

“He’s from a big family and a lot of his family still live down that way.”

Worpel has recently returned to Hawthorn’s line-up after suffering an ankle injury in the Opening Round win over Sydney.