In today’s AFL Briefing, your wrap of footy news:

• Collingwood are keen for Jeremy Howe to play on next year.
• The Selwood-like stat that has this young Blue on track for the Rising Star.
• North Melbourne are acutely aware they’re the AFLW’s “hunted team” in 2026.

Collingwood are keen for premiership defender Jeremy Howe to play on next year, as debate over the futures of Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom continue.

An industry source confirmed on Monday that Howe had been offered a one-year extension by the Magpies, which would take his career into a 17th season. However, contract terms have yet to be rubber-stamped.

The Magpies did not wish to comment when contacted by this masthead.

Howe, 36, has played 287 games through his time at Melbourne and the Magpies, and is within sight of the 300-game milestone.

He has undergone surgery on a broken left arm hurt during last Thursday’s loss to Geelong. A steel plate has been inserted, giving Howe hope of a return before the end of the home-and-away season.

The ninth-placed Magpies are fighting for a wildcard berth, but have had their backline decimated by injury, for they are also without skipper Darcy Moore, Brayden Maynard and Harry Perryman, the latter straining a hamstring against the Cats.

Howe has retained his high-flying athleticism even late in his career, while his ability to marshall the back six remains pivotal.

There had been industry speculation Howe could have finished his career elsewhere and then moved into an assistant coaching role. A proud Tasmanian, he has been linked to joining the Tasmania Devils when they enter the league in 2028.

While Howe’s 2027 plans appear clear, the Magpies have a major call to make on fellow veterans Sidebottom and Pendlebury.

As reported by this masthead, the Magpies are expected to announce Sidebottom’s retirement before the season’s close, and are open to Pendlebury to either retire or seek to finish his playing days at another club and then be an assistant coach there.

Pendlebury, set to turn 39 in January, is averaging 24 disposals per game this year, his highest return since 2019. He told this masthead last month he had yet to make a call on next year.

“I’m not sure about next year. My focus is still on this year, and performances like this give me belief that this group can do special things this year,” Pendlebury said.

The Selwood-like stat that has this young Blue on track for the Rising Star

Jon Pierik

Jagga Smith and Harry Dean have been central to rallying the Carlton faithful, the fans’ roar as visceral as it’s been in years when a Smith handball led to Dean’s first AFL goal at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.

Each is firmly in the running for the AFL Rising Star award, but Smith may have the edge. His elite form puts himon a par with a four-time premiership great for his offensive influence at this stage of his career.

Smith, who sat out the 2025 campaign because of a knee reconstruction, has clocked up 129 score involvements, matching Geelong champion Joel Selwood for the most by a young player 20 games into his career, excluding mature-age recruits.

He has overtaken Jesse Hogan (124 with Melbourne), Cyril Rioli (122 with Hawthorn) and Isaac Heeney (121 for the Swans) in powering to the top of the leaderboard with Selwood, whose influence on the Cats in 2007 was central to their premiership. Selwood was also named the Rising Star that year, edging Scott Pendlebury.

Smith had arguably the most influential match of his young career against the Brisbane Lions, enjoying 29 possessions, including six clearances and two goals when pitted against a premiership-laden midfield, and was named the Robert Walls medallist.

This was the first time he had booted multiple goals in a game, taking his tally for the season to seven - the same number Selwood finished with all those years ago.

As Fox Footy analyst David King has noted, Smith makes good, quick decisions and is “prepared to bite off the risky kick”. His ability to find speed and dish off a snappy handball at a centre ball up was a highlight of his performance against the Lions, helping to ignite the Blues’ running game.

AFL great James Hird said the Oakleigh Chargers product had been integral to allowing Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh to enjoy season-best form.

“What I liked about Carlton, Jagga Smith, obviously playing well, Walsh and Cripps can actually do their job, they can do what they are best at,” Hird told Nine’s Footy Furnace.

“That’s actually win the ball around the contest, give a good handball and let the other players on the outside [go to work]. They are not having to do it all.”

Hird’s comments are reinforced by more than 15 of Smith’s 26.4 touches per game being uncontested, with 11.5 handball receives. He leads the league in loose ball gets (7.1 per game).

After such a commanding win over the Lions, Blues coach Josh Fraser, understandably, praised his entire youth movement.

“We’ve got exciting youth, really exciting youth. They bring a youthful exuberance to the way they play. ‘Deany’ kicking that goal, you could see what that meant to him and those around him. Jagga has been very consistent for a while now,” Fraser said.

“Lachie Cowan doesn’t get spoken about a lot, but he’s a young player that is so important for us. Billy Wilson is growing his game, Cooper Lord has come in and is playing important roles. And there’s other guys that are performing at a high standard, so I’m really excited about the youth of the group.

“We know we’ve got more work in front of us, but what they’ve been able to bring has elevated our performance across the board. Those guys are as hungry as anyone to get better, the way they’re tipping into their game and investing in their game.”

Dean’s attention to detail has been extolled by fellow defender Jacob Weitering, describing the son of a gun as the “ultimate competitor” who has “some nastiness about him”.

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon was a keen onlooker on Saturday night, and now must find a way to curb a midfield that has helped Fraser to a staggering 9-2 record as caretaker coach when the two teams meet in a finals-shaping blockbuster on Sunday night.

Weitering is pushing for a recall from calf issues, and will look to strengthen his push when the Blues train on Wednesday.

‘The competition is coming after us.’ North Melbourne ready to remain the AFLW’s hunted

Scott Spits

Days after the AFLW’s best talent went from fierce rivals to loyal teammates for the historic Australia versus Ireland international match, the focus sharply turns to the biggest challenge in “the W”: finding a way to break North Melbourne’s stranglehold on the competition.

The Kangaroos boast one of the best current records in Australian sport: a 27-match winning streak that has delivered back-to-back premierships. Due to the quirks of AFLW competition (shortened seasons that limit competition between clubs) and an early season draw against Geelong in 2024, it’s 32 months since the Darren Crocker-coached North Melbourne have experienced defeat.

While AFLW season 11 will kick off on Sunday as part of a St Kilda versus Carlton double-header with the men’s competition, the Kangas will launch their premiership defence against Geelong on 15 August. Should the Roos simply keep on keeping on by notching by victories, the streak will form a life of its own.

But North Melbourne star Jasmine Garner, an AFLW stalwart who was part of the Australian team that beat the Irish by 50 points at North Sydney Oval on Saturday, is acutely aware that the team from Arden Street is in each of their opponent’s sights.

“I think we’ve come into this pre-season with a mindset of ‘OK, how do we keep getting better’. Because the competition is coming after us, we know that,” 32-year-old Garner said on Monday.

“We’re not shying away from it.

“We just keep [focusing on] building our brand of footy. There’s little things that we’ve been trying to work on this pre-season, and we’ve had good success in our praccy games.”

Brisbane Lions captain Brenna Koenen, one of the club’s foundation players and the 2023 premiership captain, says the Kangas have “a massive target on their back”. Koenen has had an up-close vantage point as the Roos ruled supreme in consecutive grand finals, both times easily having the Lions’ measure.

“North have obviously been the standard for quite a long time now. What is their [consecutive wins] record now – 27 games?,” Koenen says.

“There’s a massive target on their back but, bloody hell, it’s hard [trying to find a way to beat them].

“When you’re that good, I feel that every team almost circles you on the fixture, and they try and come out and play their best footy against you.

“Tough, but pressure is a privilege I guess.”

Last year’s grand final margin blew out to 50 points as the ruthless Roos put an exclamation mark on two seasons of dominance. Naturally Koenen has watched a replay of the game. It just didn’t happen immediately.

“You’d be crazy not to,” she says.

“You’ve just got to use that as a learning experience, at the end of the day.”

Adelaide star Ebony Marinoff, another competition stalwart, says taming the rampant Roos is the priority. “You’ve just got to keep striving,” the 28-year-old says.

“At the end of the day you have to be able to respect and honour what North Melbourne has been able to do.

“I’m a competitor but at the end of the day when someone is successful … there’s so much respect there for what you’ve been able to do.

“And having been coached under Crocs [North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker, who also led the Australian coaching contingent against Ireland] for the last few days, you can understand why he’s so successful. His story-telling was incredible, just the way that he expressed himself and got around …. the whole of the group,” she said.

“They’re very lucky to have him at the helm.

“[While] I think anyone can be beaten, it’s going to be hard to stop them.

“They have so much depth amongst their list, but I think for all of us you’ve just got to keep striving.”