2017 season with Richmond's reserves side in the VFL. He was a key forward-line player for the side, kicking 13 goals in his first eight matches. He was upgraded to the club's senior list in June 2017. He made his AFL debut two weeks later in Richmond's round 15 win over at the Adelaide Oval where he kicked two goals in the match. He played again the following match but was omitted from the team's round 17 side to play the week after. From there he returned to the club's reserves side, playing with the team through to their finals campaign. There he played in each of their three victories, and in the team's losing grand final against Port Melbourne. Stengle finished the 2017 season having played two matches and kicked two goals at senior level. He also played 19 matches in the reserves and kicked 33 goals, good for the second most at the club and sixth most in the league. In February 2018 Stengle was selected alongside most of the club's younger players to represent Richmond at the Sydney tournament of the AFLX exhibition series. He started the season-proper with the club's reserves side, but was immediately impressive at that level with a 20 disposal and three-goal game in round 1. By round 5 he was named as an emergency for the AFL team, but ultimately went unselected at the top level. In mid-May Stengle turned in a three-goal third quarter during a VFL match with North Melbourne that saw him again named an AFL emergency the next week. He began playing limited midfield minutes in VFL matches from June, adding positional versatility to his predominantly forward-line role. In mid-July Stengle turned in his best performance of the year to-date, kicking a bag of six goals while gathering 24 disposals in Richmond's VFL win over North Melbourne. For that performance he was noted by head coach Damien Hardwick as one of the club's best VFL performers, but went again un-selected for senior football. To that point he had played 13 matches at the lower level for a total of 26 goals, the most for any Richmond player and the sixth most of any player in that league. Two weeks later Stengle suffered a minor ankle injury while playing in a VFL match against . He missed the second half of the match due to the injury as well