How Collingwood bad boy Jordan De Goey transformed into a Magpies cult hero
WHEN Jordan De Goey stuffed up again earlier this year he confronted his mistake instead of running away from it and that has been the catalyst for his remarkable transformation.
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SAMSON the rottweiler is as big as a horse and eats everything in sight, including furniture when the mood takes him.
Duke the bulldog already has form after his owner lied about breaking his hand throwing a dog toy at him instead of confessing about a bar-room punch-up.
Depending on your interpretation, Jordan De Goey’s dogs have either got him in a heck of a lot of trouble or been the catalyst for his football.
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Because at 8.25pm on Saturday February 17, as he pulled into a random breath test station in Beaconsfield Parade, Port Melbourne, they were about to throw his career into peril.
It’s hard to escape the irony. In 2017 when De Goey was banned for three matches by the club for a lie that fell apart the moment it left his mouth, it was his dogs he blamed.
This time, it actually was his love for Samson and Duke that threatened his AFL career.
De Goey had been drinking with schoolmates in Torquay that day and had planned to stay with them in Werribee, where his car had been left at a mate’s place.
But Samson and Duke were back home at his house in Highett, and they hadn’t been fed.
In hindsight it was the definition of insanity for an AFL player with a black mark against his name to jump in his car as a P-plater who needed to be squeaky clean.
What must have gone through his mind as he blew into that Port Melbourne breath-test, the machine flashing up 0.095?
Seven months and 12 days after that dramatic incident, De Goey will march onto the MCG on Saturday as Collingwood’s new cult hero.
He is a sportswriter’s dream, with a touch of Dane Swan bad boy, the brute strength that sees manager Ben Niall calling him “Bam Bam”, the marketability and strut of Grand Final hero Dustin Martin.
Even for the saturated coverage of the AFL, which dines out on redemption stories and “personal journeys”, it has been a remarkable transformation.
Ten minutes after blowing that positive reading, he had called his manager Niall in tears.
He told him he had stuffed up again and didn’t know how to fix it.
What was wrong with him that this kept happening, a distraught De Goey asked Niall.
Minutes later he had called football boss Geoff Walsh to come clean and own his mistake.
Then instead of running away from his mistake like the previous year, he confronted it.
He spent the next 24 hours penning a speech to his teammates and coaches about his mistakes and the way forward from them.
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Its message, honed over a night of practice with his parents, was simple.
“He owned his mistake from the second he did it,’’ player manager Niall told the Herald Sun this week.
He said, “Why do I do this?” He said to his teammates, “I know you don’t trust me and I don’t trust myself when I am drinking either”.
“He said I will put an alcohol ban on, it’s not part of my punishment, it’s what I need.
“He started seeing a psychologist to understand himself as a person, he suggested the indefinite suspension until he could get their trust back, he suggested the fine and donation to charity, so he didn’t fight the punishments, he just got stuck in and worked hard.
“And at Collingwood he got whacked but he also got supported.
“They have created an environment where there it is OK to show vulnerability but also have real man love. You can express your feelings and insecurities and fears.”
History will show that Collingwood’s brand of tough love was handled with just the right combination of carrot and stick.
Collingwood vice-captain Taylor Adams says unlocking De Goey’s potential was about ensuring he made life-altering changes instead of just telling the club what it wanted to hear.
“It was really difficult because first and foremost we had Jordy’s wellbeing front of mind.
“That is one of the aspects we have discussed this year, making sure we feel cared for and loved and wanted in the environment and we wanted to make sure Jordy felt that way.
“We sought from advice from (leadership consultant) Nick Maxwell and (footy boss) Geoff Walsh and I thought the way we worked through it was awesome.
“The onus was put on him to make sure he got himself right. And he’s repaid us in spades with the way he had played on the field.”
One of De Goey’s obligations was to work at the Salvation Army’s The Magpie Nest feeding the homeless, a month-long commitment that has turned into a passion for him.
Collingwood’s senior players committed to spending those Saturday nights with him so he was not alone helping feed the homeless in a program run by chaplain Brendan Nottle.
“It’s when you see Jordy in his element. He would have spent 15 weeks in a row for three hours once or twice a week down there,’’ says Adams.
“The way those people embrace him and he embraces them, it was really eye-opening. I actually took my girlfriend down there and she actually had this perception of Jordy as a bit of a misbehaving kid, and what she saw was a kid who really cared about people and was willing to give a bit of himself to make sure people have better lives.”
As part of his banishment from the club he began a landscaping job in Williamstown as well as training three times a week with the club’s VFL side and doing extra sessions with Pies fitness boss Kevin White.
Only problem was he didn’t have a car licence.
To get to the work site by 7.30am he rode his bike to the train station then took two trains to get to work on time.
“He didn’t just turn up and tick the boxes, he got stuck in and worked his arse off,” says Niall.
“He got the respect of the boys on site, he wasn’t some prima donna.”
He finally regained his licence about six weeks ago, after begging for rides from teammates like Jeremy Howe and James Aish who also live bayside or taking Ubers or public transport home.
But the alcohol ban stays firmly in place.
He thrives on routine, doing his Salvation Army work on weekends then visiting a bar/restaurant in Oakleigh over the weekends to chinwag with the owner and friends.
Mid-year on an eight-day break — the exact time when he might once have had a sneaky beer — he joined his mates in the city and found himself at Crown casino.
Knowing false sightings of him doing what he shouldn’t have reached Dusty Martin status, he texted Walsh to update him on his status and finished the night alcohol-free.
Pies midfielder Josh Thomas admits he wasn’t sure if De Goey would sink or swim when the club handed out the list of pre-season penalties.
“Absolutely. I thought it was pretty severe what the club did and maybe rightfully so in some ways because he had had a few chances before,” he said this week.
“It was a big whack he copped but he just took it on the chin. He didn’t cry about it or have a sook or sulk. He went back to the VFL and trained really hard.
“He has had a drinking ban all year and he’s literally stuck to it. There hasn’t been a moment when he has had a sneaky beer at home, obviously I haven’t been there 24/7 but I think he genuinely has. It got to three or four months but you realised, he is actually dead serious about this.
“And you can’t play the footy he’s been playing by lobbing up and not working hard.”
The mentors are plentiful — welfare boss Brent Macaffer, Maxwell, stoppages coach Garry Hocking, players Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury.
Pendlebury dragged him into the gym and urged him to devote himself, and if his diet is still a work in progress his power-to-weight ratio is elite.
Adam Treloar said after he ragdolled Alex Rance in a one-on-one contest on Friday night he was the strongest player at the Pies.
By Round 4 he was back in the senior side and by the following week he was thrilling Anzac Day crowds with line-breaking bursts from the midfield.
After five matchwinning goals against Brisbane in Round 7, then six straight against St Kilda in Round 9, he was officially hot property.
Niall had put off contract talks around Anzac Day to give him a better indication of De Goey’s worth, and suddenly he was right in the thick of a full-blown contract saga.
North Melbourne offered five million bucks over five years and might have gone higher.
Yet De Goey never wanted to leave his mates or the club.
As each week passed his contract became a must-ask question for every Collingwood player.
He eventually signed a two-year deal on around $700,000 that leaves him room to sign a monster contract as a 24-year-old, his potential for endorsement deals untapped.
Right now the phone is ringing off the hook for those opportunities, the Pies and the AFL using his image prominently to market the finals series.
This year is about franking his potential but when the time is right he will sign those deals that tap into his affinity with the fans and that dash of ratbag that Swan and Martin have used so lucratively.
The contract impasse could have turned into a circus yet what could have been a distraction never really was, according to teammate Tom Langdon.
“There was massive speculation about it, but his ability to brush it aside and perform consistently under that duress was a real credit to him,’’ Langdon said.
“As he was going through that, a lot of guys were really impressed with how he handled that stuff.
“The maturity he showed, it’s a real credit to him.”
When that fat contract came through he bought presents for Maxwell, Macaffer and Hocking as a show of appreciation.
As one insider says: “He went from a kid who was pretty selfish to someone who appreciates the people around him a lot more. People have invested a lot in him and he appreciate that.”
So who is De Goey?
Former Melbourne star Rod Grinter, an assistant coach at his former school St Kevins, says he is the same kid who instead of playing firsts football in Year 10 decided to play with his mates for the year in the 10A side.
Says Langon of his personality: “He’s pretty laid-back. Most guys would say he’s just a big kid”.
“He was just throwing balls at Brodie Grundy in the pool just then and Brodie was getting quite frustrated by it.
“He’s a pretty jovial guy, he doesn’t take his job too seriously, but you could tell that if everything came together he would be an incredible player.
“With Jordy you got a sense that in one game he would light it on fire and then the next game he would go missing a bit. As you get older you learn to perform consistently and he’s done that.
“I think a lot of players look up to him now whereas in the past maybe not, but he has become a real barometer and he’s embraced that.”
Originally published as How Collingwood bad boy Jordan De Goey transformed into a Magpies cult hero
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