Collingwood’s Jordan Roughead gutted for AFL’s newest recruits

Collingwood’s Jordan Roughead says he is gutted for some of the league’s youngest players whose footy dreams have been put on hold.

Collingwood defender Jordan Roughead. Picture: Getty Images

Collingwood defender Jordan Roughead says he is gutted for some of the league’s youngest players whose footy dreams have been put on hold.

And he also said one of the Magpies’ Irish imports was weighing up his future after returning home because of the coronavirus crisis.

Roughead said the postponement of the season would be ­extremely challenging for all the first-year players, including Collingwood’s top pick Jay Rantall, who were desperate to begin their AFL careers.

“Without wanting to overstate things, devastated is probably the word I would use to describe how I feel for them,” Roughead said.

“My experiences of football at the highest level since I’ve been in the system have pretty much all been positive, certainly in terms of the opportunities the game has given me. But for the guys to have dedicated years of their life to getting drafted, giving themselves a chance to play at the highest level and having that rug ripped from out underneath their feet (is sad).

“And whether that is for two-month period — as it is at the ­moment — or for a longer period of time, it doesn’t feel fine at all.”

With the AFL considering slashing lists, clubs’ international recruits are facing a nervous wait. Collingwood has two Irishmen — versatile tall Anton Tohill and ­impressive defender Mark Keane, who shone over the pre-season and pushed for a senior berth.

Roughead said he was struck by a recent conversation about their futures.

“I Facetimed one of them the other day to see how he was going back home and he just said ‘I don’t know what it means. I don’t want to come back and waste another six months if I’m not getting paid’. “He said ‘One of the reasons I chose to do it was the financial ­incentive and if I’m not getting paid and there is no state league football it is a waste of potentially six months of my life’.

“Time that he could invest in something else, starting medicine or whatever it is. So there are so many levels of people who are ­impacted at a pretty high level in this whole situation.”

HERALD SUN