Who’s to blame for Jordan De Goey’s career not taking off? Mark Robinson looks at one of footy’s great mysteries
Jordan De Goey returns when Collingwood needs him most. Can he be the player the Pies need him to be?
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One of the most mysterious careers in the AFL resumes on Saturday when Jordan De Goey returns for Collingwood.
Mysterious because a hotbed question hangs over the prodigious talent: What has happened to his football?
Suddenly the query is, as Collingwood embarks on a rebuild of its list which needs top-end draft picks, would the Pies be willing to trade De Goey to get those picks?
It’s a fair question.
The question that hasn’t been asked is: Does De Goey want to stay at Collingwood?
Somewhere along the line of his career, De Goey’s anticipated trajectory to become a top-liner became a stagnant, frustrated and unfilled journey.
Today, as Collingwood’s season lurches towards mediocrity, if it isn’t already at 1-5, De Goey returns when the Pies desperately need him.
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But, he too, needs the Pies to help him.
More pressing is, can Nathan Buckley from this point onwards get the best out of De Goey and/or can De Goey even get the best out himself?
Or maybe De Goey blames Buckley for his own failings in terms of how he is used?
At 25 and having played a tick more than 100 games, De Goey stands accused of being the most overrated and overpaid player in the AFL — although Brad Hill says hello.
The multi-talented De Goey sits in the “gonna’’ category.
In 2018, having kicked 48.22 and delivering a wonderful finals series, he was gonna be the next great player.
He was gonna reach levels occupied by Dustin Martin.
He was gonna be the million dollar kid.
He was gonna ravish defenders playing deep in the F50, either in the air or on the ground such was his electricity.
At the halfway point of his career, is he gonna be any of that?
Somehow De Goey’s career has been derailed.
There’s questions more than answers.
He arrived for pre-season in 2020 unfit so there’s culpability there, and if De Goey was honest with himself, he’d probably concede his professionalism hasn’t been up to scratch in a lot of those early years.
Does he prepare as he should? He has never been a primed physical specimen and for sure you can train to play, but can you train work ethic?
Buckley has always publicly supported his matchwinner, but is Buckley also mildly frustrated? He was a thresher as a trainer and preparer and just recently acknowledged the best trainers were often the best players.
Everyone’s different and Buckley has learnt that. Still, what could’ve De Goey achieved if his dedication was supreme?
The Buckley-De Goey relationship has always been intriguing and you have to wonder if Buckley will ever get consistent high output from De Goey.
Mick McGuane argues he won’t until Collingwood changes its game style.
In essence, McGuane is in De Goey’s corner.
He says the slow ball movement and Buckley’s want to play Mason Cox up until recently stifled De Goey’s extraordinary talent.
What do you see when you look at De Goey?
“I see a forward line which is dysfunctional which hasn’t allowed him to exhibit his talent,” McGuane said.
“Delivery, set up, personnel alongside him … the biggest thing he needs is movement and that’s why I thought they had to make a call on Cox being in the team or out of the team, because often he (Cox) folds back into Collingwood’s best 1v1 player of the past three years and doesn’t give De Goey a chance to exhibit the 1v1 attributes he’s got.’’
Let’s dig deeper. The forward-midfield split for De Goey has been roughly 70-30 from 2018-21.
In 2018, he was in 50 1v1 contests. He won 18, neutralised 20 and lost 12. His league ranking was 20th
In 2019, it was 47 1v1 contests. He won 19, neutralised 17 and lost 11. His league ranking was 13th
In 2020, it was 25 1v1 contests. He won eight, neutralised nine and lost eight. His league ranking was 31st.
In five games this year, he’s won two 1v1 contests from seven. His win rate is down on previous years, but McGuane’s point is why is the team’s best 1v1 player in the F50 being presented with only seven contests?
His league ranking this year is 41st.
Asked if De Goey had a level of responsibility for his own performance, McGuane said: ‘’I think it’s more personnel in the forward six. I like him when he’s got room to move, like the Carlton game earlier this year. The lanes were there and he and Elliott benefited from that.
“He’s Collingwood’s most explosive match winner in the forward half and to maximise that strength they need to utilise that space more than they do.
“The biggest thing is they’ve got to decide what he is. Jordan might be telling the club he wants to be a midfielder and they’re telling him he is a forward … are they getting the balance right?
“I think he’s got something Collingwood definitely needs. Thirty years ago we had a Daicos who was that point of difference and he won us a premiership and De Goey is probably the Daicos of this group, even though there is a Daicos playing.’’
McGuane wants De Goey to be the deepest forward.
“But they have to give him space to work his craft,” he said. “But I reckon with their slow ball movement, opposition clubs get back, big blokes get in, when Mason Cox plays he draws a crowd because of his height and all of a sudden there’s more numbers around Jordan De Goey.
“Hence the reason as to why a Darcy Moore, (Brody) Mihocek, De Goey and (Jamie) Elliott type of forward line could function better with more movement.
“You’ve got your bail out options with Moore and Mihocek getting up, your deeper options of Elliott and De Goey staying in, and your pressure forwards like Callum Brown and Josh Thomas, and maybe a little bit of class with Sidebottom getting in there.’’
McGuane is mystified why De Goey’s only had seven 1v1 contests this year.
“You can’t be a great player one-on-one and then all of a sudden you’ve only got seven times to justify your worth as a 1v1 player,’’ he said.
“Something methodically or mechanically is a problem to not get him the ball in those 1v1 situations.
“Is it ball movement? Is it players around not providing space to work his craft? In five games this year he averages less than two 1v1 and with the amount of supply they have to their forward line, it’s incomprehensible.”
At the end of 2018, De Goey was offered in excess of $1million by North Melbourne.
In December last year, he signed a two-year deal at Collingwood, for roughly $750,000-$800,000 a year.
His talent is obvious — think Carlton this year, think the five goals against Geelong in Round 7 last year in Perth, think the five goals against Richmond in Round 2 in 2019 — but also think – why hasn’t he been able to replicate those performances more often?
Clearly, there’s something amiss with him, be it the game style, his positioning, the coach or the player himself. Or could it be he was overrated because he played for Collingwood?
Always, time will tell everything.
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