Collingwood struck paydirt in the 2014 draft bringing in De Goey, Moore and Maynard

His ‘off-field night activity’ and fitness were concerning but Brayden Maynard convinced the Pies well before he slid in the 2014 draft. Here’s the inside story.

Matt Rendell was sitting on the couch taking in the decor of the De Goey family living room in between looking at his watch.

He was part of a Collingwood contingent who’d arranged to interview Jordan De Goey, the promising Oakleigh Chargers forward who was suddenly very much on the Magpies’ radar.

Premiership midfielder Dayne Beams’ shock move to the Brisbane Lions during trade week had resulted in the Pies vaulting up the draft order and they now held picks No. 5 and No.9.

De Goey had kicked three goals in the Chargers’ TAC Cup grand final victory and was universally regarded as being at the pointy end of the talent pool for the 2014 national draft.

The home visit was used by recruiters to not only get to know the players’ family but also to see how they acted in familiar territory.

Any little insight helped and some coaches had been known to check if prospective draftees made their bed or not.

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Nathan Buckley congratulates Jordan De Goey at the 2014 draft. Picture: AAP Images

There was plenty of time for such investigating if the Pies wanted because De Goey was late.

Then just as the small talk started to dry up, the front door burst open and in strutted the man of the hour.

“Hello boys,” he said with a smile.

“What the hell, Jordan?” was the universal response from everyone in the room.

There was not an ounce of concern on the 18-year-old’s face as he casually offered an explanation: “I was down at the gym and just lost track of time.”

Rendell smiled. Being late to an interview was enough for some clubs to rule a line through a player.

The Pies had known De Goey had some “scallywag” in him and they liked it.

“He was just dynamic on the field, he mainly played forward and you could just see the power,” Rendell said.

“He had enough tricks plus he had a swagger.”

After the meet and greet, the recruiting team went away and gathered their thoughts before coming up with their latest draft ranking.

The Pies had Christian Petracca, the midfield bull from the Eastern Ranges, as a “clear” No. 1 with De Goey at No.2.

Jordan De Goey and Darcy Moore after being picked up by the Magpies. Picture: Stephen Harman

STEAK KNIVES

THE wish list included Dayne Zorko, Pearce Hanley, Jack Redden, James Aish or Sam Mayes.

Collingwood wanted Brisbane’s No. 5 draft pick and a quality player to facilitate Dayne Beams’ move north.

A counter offer by the Lions of picks 5 and 25 was then rejected as negotiations stalled in the middle of trade week.

The unofficial Friday deadline set by the Pies had passed but by late Monday Collingwood’s recruiting boss Derek Hine made an inspired judgment call.

A few years back he’d had a soft spot for Murray Bushrangers midfielder Jack Crisp who had been overlooked in the draft but made it on to Brisbane’s list as a rookie.

The knock was about his kicking. There was no doubting his ability to find the ball — he won the Bushrangers’ best and fairest and made the 2011 TAC Cup Team of the Year — plus he was a tackling machine.

Crisp had played 18 games over three seasons in Brisbane but seemed to be out of favour so Hine inquired about whether he could be the ultimate “steak knives” in the Beams deal.

The Lions agreed to send picks 5, 25 and Crisp to Collingwood but by now there were three other clubs involved in the mega-trade.

Jack Crisp has been a stunning pick up for the Magpies. Picture: Sarah Reed

Losing a senior player out of the midfield was a concern for the Pies and their search for a replacement had landed on Levi Greenwood at North Melbourne.

They’d got wind that he was in a contract dispute with the Roos after 74 games in five seasons.

He was no Beams in terms of class and match-winning ability but he was hard, tough and could play a run-with role.

Importantly, he could help reduce the pressure on the likes of new captain Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom.

A deal was done with pick 25 from the Lions going to North for Greenwood.

But there was still another piece to the puzzle which had to be worked out.

Melbourne had convinced premiership defender Heritier Lumumba to jump ship so the Pies had started looking at troubled key forward Mitch Clark as a possible swap.

There was no doubting Clark’s talent but he’d parted ways with the Demons in April after he could no longer cope with the demands of full-time football.

The time away from the game had helped and he was now looking to reboot his career at a third club.

“We went top to bottom on mental health with Mitch Clark,” Rendell said.

“We were in the process of doing numerous psychological testing and while we were doing it Geelong came in and said, ‘We’ll take you’.

“They rushed in and he decided to go there. Geelong then said to get him in, someone has to go, and that was Travis Varcoe.

“So getting Varcoe was really a fluke in the end.”

Varcoe was the man who’d broken Collingwood’s hearts kicking one of the greatest goals in Grand Final history in Geelong’s 2011 victory.

He had leg speed, was a great tackler and at 26 was coming into the prime of his career with already 138 games and 130 goals on his CV.

Jack Crisp, Levi Greenwood and Travis Varcoe joined the Pies in the same off-season. Picture: Rob Leeson

SWEATING ON PICK 30

“DO they know something that we don’t know here?”

Rendell was throwing out the question to Collingwood’s table inside the Gold Coast Convention Centre as the 2014 national draft kicked into its second round.

In their final draft rankings they’d had Sandringham Dragons captain Brayden Maynard around No.6.

But with the first round done, his name hadn’t been called. Now the draft was sneaking into the 20s and still he remained unloved.

The Pies had been excited to get De Goey at No. 5 after Greater Western Sydney surprisingly went for Jarrod Pickett at No.4.

St Kilda had opted for key forward Paddy McCartin at No. 1 which meant Petracca and Maynard’s Sandringham Dragons teammate Angus Brayshaw had gone to the Demons at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively.

As expected Collingwood was forced to use its No. 9 pick on Darcy Moore under the father-son rule.

The son of dual Brownlow medallist Peter Moore had been on the Pies’ radar for several years with his raw athletic ability and similar high-marking talent to his father making him a no-brainer selection.

But that hadn’t stopped Collingwood from trying to throw other clubs off the scent.

They’d tried to get some misinformation out there by interviewing the top eight prospects in the draft and letting everyone know that they had.

Collingwood snapped up defender Brayden Maynard at pick 30 in the 2014 national draft.

Pretending that they were wavering on taking Moore, who’d captained the Oakleigh Chargers’ premiership side, was an attempt to scare off an opposition club making an early offer so they could potentially snare him in the second round.

It didn’t work with the Western Bulldogs putting up their first-round pick for Moore which the Pies quickly matched.

What was working out for the Collingwood crew was the snubbing of Maynard.

And when Gold Coast at pick 29 — the one before Collingwood — selected Touk Miller from the Calder Cannons there was a wave of disbelief and excitement in the Magpies’ cluster.

Hine couldn’t get Maynard’s name out quick enough as Rendell kept shaking his head.

“He had a lovely left-foot kick but what we loved was his aggression,” Rendell explains.

“I remember in the preliminary final the Dragons played Oakleigh who used to have what I called the ‘Mighty Midgets’, there were five or six of these little fellas who would pick a target during the finals and just terrorise that opposition player.

“In that final Brayshaw was out injured and Maynard was the mainstay of the midfield so the Mighty Midgets went at him all day.

“He still played well but you could see he just wanted to kill them, you could see he wanted to smash them all and in the end he got one in a tackle and nearly killed him.

“He was playing for keeps and I loved that, these midgets were going at him one after another and he just wanted to take them on.”

The slows on Maynard centred around question marks over his “off-field night activity” and his endurance which was highlighted at the AFL Combine.

“He didn’t test great, he did something like an 11 something on the beep test,” Rendell said. “If you’re taking someone as a midfielder you would like them to run 14 or close to it.

“So we went back and looked at Josh Kennedy’s testing, we went back and looked at Luke Hodge’s testing and they were all very similar so we didn’t worry about it.”

Four years later Maynard was at the centre of the most controversial moment in the 2018 Grand Final.

That day he was one of five players (Moore was injured) from Collingwood’s 2014 draft class who went within a kick of being premiership players.

Originally published as Collingwood struck paydirt in the 2014 draft bringing in De Goey, Moore and Maynard