SOPHIE GANNON: Bailey Smith’s AFL redemption story could be complete with Cats grand final win

Love him or hate him, Geelong’s star midfielder Bailey Smith’s 2025 season is one of the AFL’s greatest redemption stories.

If you were to say that he would come third in the Brownlow, accept his maiden All-Australian jacket, and play in a grand final this year — not many would have believed it.

After his last grand final appearance in 2021, Smith endured a nightmare three seasons with the bulldogs. Off-field indiscretions and a ruptured ACL left Smith out of sight for many football fans, but clearly not out of mind for the Cats.

He was a man who many thought might never return to playing career-best football. That was until the Cats pounced on the opportunity to bring in the wounded dog to GMHBA stadium.

Smith’s talent is prodigious and undeniable. If anyone was going to get the best out of him it was always going to be Cat’s coach Chris Scott, captain Patrick Dangerfield as well the Geelong system that gives overlooked or lost players their second chance.

There’s no doubt that questions were firing from every direction before he began the 2025 season: What would we get? Would his body hold up? Could he handle the pressure of a new start at the Cats? Would his enigmatic style fit in with the Cats culture and structure?

Fast-forward to grand final week and he’s silenced the critics emphatically, though has also gobbed off at the wrong times.

Smith has had a career-best year. He finished top two at the Cats for tackles, inside 50s and clearances. Averaging 31 disposals, six clearances, and five marks for the season. Pretty sensational really.

To add to the season resume, he also ranked second in the AFL for metres gained per match at 647.3m.

It was foolish for us to have even considered Scott didn’t have a plan. A role designed to maximise the elite gut-running ability of his star recruit.

It’s not just about his on-field performances that makes his redemption arc so impressive but also what has happened off-field.

At the All-Australian presentations, he revealed to the world that he’d spent a month in a psychiatric ward after reaching a breaking point while rehabbing his ACL last year. He admitted that he felt like he’d lost his identity, unsure if he’d ever get through it. He said the combination of outside noise, teething issues while moving clubs and still trying to just grow up, had turned into “dark and shocking times” for him.

In a league where vulnerability is almost always hidden, Smith’s honesty transformed how the players, fans and even the AFL viewed him — and the topic of mental health within the game.

He has become an unlikely role model for being yourself.

Smith recently got in some hot water after verbally abusing a veteran female photographer who was taking his photo while he was getting treatment at an open training session. He flipped the bird and approached her demanding her to delete the pictures.

He apologised via text which the photographer accepted but it did leave a bad taste after all the praises sung about him after his raw admissions at the All-Australian night.

Smith is still far from perfect, but his journey is what makes his redemption mean so much.

He hasn’t reinvented himself into some cookie cutter poster boy, he is unapologetically who he is. He’s still flawed and capable of letting emotions boil over. But that’s real. That’s footy.

“He’s a headline maker,” said Hamish Mclachlan at last night’s Brownlow Medal.

And this week there will be as many if not more headlines on if his new “friend” Tammy Hembrow would be at the grand final.

After sending the paparazzi into a spin when the pair were spotted on a few dates last month, Bailey this week confirmed that they were “just mates” when asked if he would be taking her to the Brownlow.

Instead he took his jiujitsu coach as a date, wore retro Oakley sunglasses with an all-black suit, and checked with Dangerfield on air, if he’d won a Brownlow before.

And in the same breathe that he was giving his skipper grief, he also revealed the pair shared coffee nearly every morning where they talked about life and how to separate the player from the person.

“He still takes time out of his day to look after me throughout some dark periods this year,” Smith said during a post-game interview this year.

Smith was fined for flipping the bird at Crows fans after they yelled abuse at former Crow Dangerfield after a game.

While repentant Smith was pretty clear why he did it: “Don’t talk s... to the skipper.”

Dangerfield put it simply last night: “He (Smith) keeps footy fun.”

The 2025 season will always be the year Bailey Smith flipped the script.

And there are more chapters to go.

Don’t be surprised if he’s got two medals around his neck Saturday afternoon. He’s that sort of character.