“It’s a waste of talent”: Brownlow Medallist reacts to Stephenson's shock retirement call

Is it fair to say that Jaidyn Stephenson has wasted incredibly football talent by retiring at the age of 25? Adam Cooney thinks so.

7AFL reporter Mitch Cleary reported on Monday night that Stephenson has fallen out of love with the sport and will retire with a year to run on his contract.

His best year of footy came in his debut season of 2018, where he kicked 38 goals for Collingwood and won the AFL’s Rising Star award.

His career has been turbulent since then, suspended 10 games for a violation of the AFL’s gambling rules and suffering a serious injury while intoxicated on a bicycle.

Stephenson was traded to North Melbourne after his third season, where his career would slowly fizzle out.

“It’s a waste of talent. 100 per cent waste of talent. He played seven years. His best year was his first year clearly,” Cooney told SEN’s Sportsday.

“He kicked 38 goals in his first year and burst onto the scene and he was only slight of frame but had some speed and took the game on.

“I think the off-field issues that put the biggest dint in his confidence. He had that boozy bike crash accident. That would have affected him.

“He might be a victim of the expectation once a young player bursts onto the scene, the expectation rises from there and he just wasn’t able to meet that.

“You couple that with some off-field indiscretions and then you lose confidence and self-confidence can waiver and I think he’s probably a victim of that as well.

“Your love of the game can then diminish. It’s a tough one. Sometimes you think the grass is greener on the other side. He’s 25. Probably not at the level of maturity to be making really intelligent life-altering decisions and this one is going to be that.

“He might have found himself delisted in a year or two, but he’s throwing away half a million bucks to go and do something else. You just hope he’s making the right decisions for him and his family and he’s sorted out financially.

“But I would say it is a wasted talent. He’s had 38 disposals in a game. You’ve got to be a pretty handy player to do that. He kicked two goals in a Grand Final.

“He’s clearly fallen out of love with the game and lost passion for it and he probably didn’t work hard enough and coaches have been openly critical of him about that.

“Maybe he’s going to head out bush and get a bag to play footy out there and get that enjoyment back of the game he once loved.”

Stephenson played 122 career games after being selected with pick 6 in the 2017 National Draft.