Collingwood taken to task over 'bizarre' Jordan de Goey move
Former AFL premiership player Kane Cornes has questioned the wisdom of Collingwood allowing Jordan de Goey to travel to Bali during the mid-season break.
Players travelling during their break is not unheard of, however Cornes suggested De Goey should have a different standard of trust within the club after his arrest in New York last year.
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In a statement from the New York Police Department following his arrest last November, De Goey was charged with forcible touching - grabbing private areas outside of clothing without permission - of a 35-year-old female.
De Goey was also charged with allegedly punching and kicking the woman's 37-year-old male friend, who came to her assistance.
After pleading not guilty to both charges in an initial hearing, prosecutors decided to drop the charge of forcible touching, before the assault charge was also dropped as part of a plea deal and De Goey accepted an obligation to complete 10 sessions of anger management and alcohol counselling.
De Goey posted photos of himself in Bali to his Instagram this week, jetting off after helping the Magpies extend their winning streak to four games with a win over reigning prermiers Melbourne on Monday.
However Cornes felt that after all the trouble caused late last year, Collingwood should have been more circumspect about allowoing him to travel overseas mid-season.
“I don’t care — come for me as hard as you want on this opinion. It is a stupid thing for Jordan De Goey to do to go to Bali at this stage of his career and at this stage of the season," Cornes told SEN.
“He may just be sitting by the pool in Bali like he would be doing on the Gold Coast, but I would think that in the past he has been sucked into temptation and I would think it is easier to be sucked into temptation in Bali than it is somewhere in Victoria or Queensland.
“With the issues he’s had overseas before in New York, he remains unsigned, everything is flying at Collingwood. Everything is going beautifully. They’ve forgiven him and he’s been OK, his form is probably playing to 70 per cent of his potential and has a level to go."
Jordan de Goey's Bali jaunt slammed by Kane Cornes
Cornes said by his estimation De Goey would still have some ways to go before the club's trust in him would be restored.
The former Port Adelaide star said he was not against players travelling during the mid-season break by any means, but also added the timing of the overseas jaunt was perhaps not ideal.
“I just think it’s one of the more bizarre decisions that I’ve seen," he said.
"To think that Collingwood would allow him to do that and people would say ‘hang on, he’s a grown man and he can do what he wants, it’s his four days off’.
“In the middle of the year? These players get 12 weeks off plus mandatory four-day breaks, I would think if you’re going to do that, that would be a time to do it at the end of the year.
“Collingwood fans, anyone, come at me as hard as you want, it is a dumb thing for De Goey to do to go to Bali in the middle of the year.”
On the day of De Goey's second hearing in early December last year, the assault charge was also dropped as part of a plea deal, his lawyer told The Age.
Lawyer Daniel Kaplan said footage from inside the nightclub in question had helped their case.
“[We were able to reduce the charges by] showing... what actually really transpired, and based on that they were willing to reduce the charges and offer the violation, which is not a crime,” he said.
“It showed that what the victim said happened, didn’t really happen and that’s the important thing and why we were able to get this case reduced.”
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