The sound of a locked-in Bailey Smith headbutting the wall has been a new game-day experience for his Geelong teammates.

But little else has surprised Tom Stewart and his fellow Cats about the boom recruit.

That includes Smith’s “brutally honest” insight into his past mental health struggles.

Smith, 24, has averaged 31.7 disposals in a remarkable first season at Geelong, where his meticulous preparation and frenetic attitude has impressed teammates.

“When he headbutts the wall of the team room, I sort of know he’s about to go,” Stewart said.

“It’s a pretty good sign when you hear a couple of bangs against the plaster, like ‘yep, Baz is ready to go’.”

Smith has consistently impressed his new teammates, on and off the field.

The Brownlow Medal contender candidly revealed at the AFL’s awards night that he had spent four weeks in a mental health facility last year during his rehabilitation from an ACL tear.

Stewart revealed he already had an insight into Smith after he met the then-Western Bulldogs midfielder in the lead-up to the club’s 2024 finals campaign.

“I sat down with him at my place here in Geelong and had a coffee and he was as brutally honest there and then with me as he was in front of the entire audience last Thursday night,” he said.

“So I don’t know every crux and detail about his life, but he’s been amazing for our club and for me personally as well.

“We’ve built a really strong relationship and a great rapport and we’ve spent a bit of time together and I can only applaud his honesty and his rawness to come out and put that out there in front of a mass audience.”

Stewart believed Smith’s honesty wasn’t a reflection of the headspace he was in now - with his blistering on-field output a better indicator.

“He came down here with this insatiable appetite to work,” he said, recalling Cats staff having to hold Smith back in his pre-season eagerness to impress.

“... So in terms of the mental aptitude and that sort of stuff, he’s done the work and I’m not surprised by the form that he’s showed on the field, because he works as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen.”

High-profile Smith, who attracts attention from paparazzi and has a range of off-field endorsements, has somewhat of a rock star persona.

But the reserved and private Stewart is more focused on how his work ethic is taking his teammates up a gear.

“He’s a boisterous personality. He’s everything you see and he puts it all out there, which I have a massive amount of respect for,” he said.

“... But he’s been fantastic - not only him, but the added benefit of some young players around him that have really taken a step up this year I think’s been fantastic for him, to go along and almost be a leader of that next crop: Shannon Neale, Max Holmes, Ollie Dempsey and the like.

“He’s shown them the way with his work ethic over the summer months and now they’re showing the way for us in the way that they’re playing the game.”

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