Jordan De Goey has no immediate plans to return to Australia ahead of December 8 court case
The AFL is comfortable with troubled Pie Jordan De Goey being stood down despite a claim of self-defence. When will he return for pre-season training?
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Jordan De Goey is set to train in America for the foreseeable future with Collingwood and the AFL comfortable that he be stood down indefinitely despite a claim of self-defence.
De Goey has been training in California with friends in recent days and has no immediate plans to return to Australia ahead of his December 8 court case.
His manager Ryan Vague told the Herald Sun: “Jordan remains in the United States training”.
His legal team is confident it can have his charges of assault from a Dream Hotel nightclub skirmish in Manhattan dropped altogether or have them downgraded.
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The club said in its statement when De Goey was charged he would be stood down “until such time as an outcome to proceedings against him in the United States is reached or a more complete account of events is established”.
Since then forcible touching charges have been dropped but the Pies are content to uphold that suspension.
While De Goey is arguing self-defence claiming the female involved sparked an argument, he has conceded he punched the woman’s male companion.
So until the charges are resolved Collingwood will keep him suspended indefinitely given the nature of the alleged scuffle.
One option his legal team could seek would be an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal, which can result in the ultimate dismissal of a charge if the defendant remains out of trouble for a period of time.
It is mostly between six and 12 months and would result in De Goey ultimately being spared a conviction, and also allow him to return to Melbourne without further delay to continue his AFL career.
De Goey is likely to be in America until the first week of December, with Collingwood’s pre-season training for players of five or more seasons of experience starting on December 6.
He is being paid by Collingwood so will not be docked wages for missed training time.
De Goey has been training with W Training Facility in California so will still be in good shape even if he misses training time with the Pies.
Collingwood will have a decision to make on De Goey’s future depending on his court charges.
If they are upheld they could have grounds to terminate his contract but if the charges are dismissed they would still want a full explanation about how he put himself in a position that saw him involved in a nightclub fight.
Richmond required Shai Bolton to make a $20,000 donation to a charity developing healthy masculinity after he was involved in a nightclub fight that left him with a broken wrist when Daniel Rioli’s girlfriend was subjected to “inappropriate comments”.
But De Goey has put himself in dangerous situations multiple times and even deceived the club about the nature of another bar fight that saw him break his hand earlier in his career.
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