Billie Smedts Biography

Carlton delist Blaine Boekhorst, Billie Smedts and Simon White.

Zach Tuohy has got his wish, with the Carlton running defender traded to Geelong after nominating the Cats as his preferred destination on the first day of the NAB AFL Trade Period.

In return, the Blues got Cats forward Billie Smedts, a future first-round pick and the No.63 pick the Cats gained after trading Shane Kersten to Fremantle.

Along with the 26-year-old Tuohy, Geelong received a future second-round pick from Carlton.

The horror run of injuries has continued for Billie Smedts with the luckless Geelong midfielder breaking his leg in the VFL.

Billie Smedts' terrible run with injury continues with the midfielder set to miss four months after dislocating his shoulder at training.

Following scans and discussions with the Cats' medical staff, it was decided Smedts required shoulder reconstruction surgery that will sideline him until May.

Geelong has shown faith in Billie Smedts, re-signing the inconsistent 23-year-old for two years tying him to the club until the end of 2017.

Smedts has shown he has the talent to play AFL but injury has restricted him in the past two seasons as he has begun to mature.

"I'm wishing for some luck," Smedts said.

"It's been a really, really frustrating couple of years. I'm looking forward to the next couple of years and repaying the faith the club has shown in me."

Billie Smedts' wretched run with injury has continued, with the Geelong defender to be sidelined for up to two months with a broken collarbone.

Smedts suffered the fractured clavicle in Saturday's VFL fixture against Richmond at Punt Road Oval, and he received the bad news when the results of scans came through.

"The good thing is Billie doesn't require surgery," Geelong football manager Steve Hocking said.

"He's had a good pre-season, but this stuff happens and he'll work his way through it."

Geelong coach Chris Scott has set talented 22-year-old Billie Smedts the challenge of cementing a spot in the Cats' best 22 in 2015 after his indifferent season last year.

"The issue for Billie is not so much where he plays, it's how well he plays," Scott said.

"I am confident in his ability and if he gets somewhere near his potential then he should be in our best 22."

Billie Smedts will miss up to three weeks with bone bruising in his leg sustained during the club's practice match against North Melbourne.

"He copped a bit of a whack and it's a bit of bone bruising more than anything else, so it's just a bit sore," Geelong football operations manager Neil Balme said.

"He'll miss a couple of weeks, which is a bit sad for him, but it's not too serious, fortunately."

Billie Smedts hopes to reinvent himself as a rebounding defender in 2014.

"I think (the backline) suits the way I play a lot better. I can see the game ahead of me and can read the play a bit better and take the game on a lot more," Smedts said.

"So I'm really looking forward to getting down there."

Billie Smedts has apologised for an irresponsible photo that raised the ire of the Transport Accident Commission and the Victoria Police.

Smedts posted a 'selfie' to his 10,000 followers on his Instagram account, which depicted him taking a photo with a Go Pro out the window while he appeared to be driving.

"Driving back to warrnambool for Christmas!!! #goproselfie," the photo's caption reads.

The 21-year-old assured the Cats he was not in fact driving at the time, but rather the photo was staged to make it appear that way.

"I understand that in taking and posting this image that it sends a poor and irresponsible message and I'm sorry for causing that," Smedts said in a statement.

"Road safety is something that is critical and should be taken seriously at all times. Christmas time is a particularly vulnerable time of the year, and even though I wasn't driving at the time and it was a staged shot, people seeing the photo could have thought it was real and wanted to copy it. That would be dangerous and could easily cause an accident."

Geelong players Josh Caddy and Billie Smedts receive cautions from police after they were arrested following a practical joke when they attempted to scare teammate Jackson Thurlow by wearing balaclavas and pretending to break into Thurlow's new house.

"We thought it would be a bit of laugh to scare Jackson Thurlow in his new house," the Geelong Advertiser quoted Caddy as saying," Caddy said.

"Me and Billie are both disappointed that we scared people in the community. The club has dealt with it. The police have dealt with it. We are both sorry to that lady."

Cats recruiter Stephen Wells says Geelong got the most it could from the two compensation picks it received for Gary Ablett after using them to obtain Billie Smedts and Josh Caddy.

"We'd like to think that we've used the compensation picks to the club's best advantage," Cats recruiting boss and list manager Stephen Wells said.

"When they were allocated, they were both going to be (picks that fell) out in the 20s while the expansion teams were involved in the compromised drafts.

"The pick that we've traded to the Gold Coast sits next to where we finish on the ladder, and we hope Josh can help us finish up the ladder."

Billie Smedts makes his AFL debut for Geelong with 9 disposals (4 kicks and 5 handballs) and 7 tackles in a 4-point loss to Fremantle.

Billie Smedts is poised to play at AFL level for the first time in the NAB Cup series after missing most of last season with surgery to both hips.

"When you get drafted all you want to do is play footy, and to have it taken away from you was tough," he said.

"I loved it and hated it. I loved being in the AFL environment, but I hated not playing, hated being injured, being in rehab.

"Now I just can't wait to play, it can't come quick enough. I'm just so excited to play at any level of football."

It has been a marathon pre-season for Geelong's Billie Smedts but he is raring to go after being sidelined for most of 2011 with hip injuries.

"After I had my operation I did a lot of the rehab by myself. It got a bit lonely at times, and I got a bit down in the dumps," he said.

"It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But once I came out of the rehab group the boys were awesome. They were really welcoming."