Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says he hopes the club re-signs Jordan De Goey, but has warned the 26-year-old that he is “on parole”.
De Goey has once again found himself in hot water over an off-field incident, this time handed a suspended $25,000 fine after videos were leaked of him partying and pulling down a woman’s top while on holiday in Bali during Collingwood’s mid-season break.
After initially bristling at the media coverage, the controversial star has since apologised for his actions and has been granted personal leave by the club.
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McGuire said he’d personally spoken to De Goey since he’d touched back down in Australia, and expressed hope that the De Goey-Collingwood relationship had not run its course.
“I believe he should stay at Collingwood now,” he told Nine’s Footy Classified.
“I hope my old club wraps its arms around him and that he gets a contract at the end of the year and he can set himself up to finish his career and to finish with something.
“He’s basically been put on parole by the Collingwood Football Club until the end of the year.”
McGuire was questioned about what had changed for De Goey between his initial statement, which is still on his personal Instagram account, and his secondary statement later in the week.
“I don’t think he understood that he did anything wrong, to be honest,” he said.
“I think everybody has (been the sounding board). If he didn’t hear it from those within the club, he certainly heard it from those outside the club.
“I think part of the situation is, he says, ‘What have I actually done?’, because he’s never been convicted of these things along the journey. Everyone talks about his time in New York, he got a parking fine basically.”
Collingwood has paused its contract negotiations with De Goey following the Bali trip, with reports suggesting a deal which would’ve seen him earn up to $3.2 million over four years was pulled from the table.
Former AFL coach Ross Lyon said clubs needed to be strong with their punishments, questioning whether Collingwood’s penalty to De Goey married up with the message from the club denouncing his actions.
“It’s up to the clubs not to indulge the behaviour because it’s just reinforcing it. It’s like we’ll tap you on the wrist but we’ll pay you more money,” he told Footy Classified.
“I think you can support until you can’t. I think he’s in a support position, but at the end of the day, every time you pick a team you’re sending a message.
“The loud disapproval from Collingwood and then what’s come out with the punishment isn’t really quite congruent with the noise.
“Ultimately, what’s symbolic is pulling on the jumper and you represent the values. At some point, the behaviour needs to be modified to align with the Collingwood values, otherwise he can’t stay there.
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“I just find it frustrating that we go to give him haircuts. We’re talking about what do we value and what are the behaviours as the Collingwood Football Club.
“It can’t be about, ‘Well you don’t quite live them (Collingwood’s values), so we’ll give you $600,000’, that’s a haircut. It’s really about, ‘Do you really uphold where we’re heading and where we want to go?, I don’t think it should be about the money.”