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Jordan De Goey at Magpies training on Friday.Credit:AFL Photos

Collingwood were incensed,the AFL furious. De Goey,who had blotted his copy on multiple occasions with the Magpies,was stood down immediately by the club. Sections of the club board were of a mind to jettison him,irrespective of his 2022 contract.

Today,De Goey’s future and prospects as an AFL footballer are vastly improved. Barring another misstep,he will be back playing for the Magpies in 2022. He will not be fined either,the club ruling that his 11-week exile will suffice.

He made a low-key return to the training track on Friday morning after the Magpies board reinstated him,following an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of harassment in the second degree and agreed to permanent part-time work with the Salvation Army (having worked with the Salvos in 2018 following a drink-driving episode).

The New York court has insisted that he undertake a course for behaviour – expected to be for anger management and potentially alcohol abuse. Collingwood also mandated that he have a counselling program with the club psychologist.

The bottom line is that De Goey’s career has been re-assembled from the wreckage of that night on Manhattan tiles.

Assuming he avoids further strife,he’s assured of a well-remunerated career in the AFL in the short-term,whether that’s with Collingwood,or another club.

Rival clubs are absolutely interested in De Goey,who demonstrated his high-end talent in the latter half of 2021. Should he or the Magpies agree upon a separation in his free agency season (and his nose is clean),there will be a number of suitors.

Collingwood’s decision to stand down De Goey – a step that the club chose not to take when he was charged (and cleared) with indecent assault in 2021 – was based upon both the potential severity of the accusations/charges and on his prior misdeeds and resultant brand damage to a club already dented by theDo Better report on racism.

But De Goey’s fortunes have steadily improved since his arrest,as the charges were whittled down to the point that he is pleading guilty to one count of harassment. The harassed party is a man. De Goey and his friend Luke Dyson had been charged with assaulting that same man.

Collingwood are adamant that they were right to stand De Goey down upon his arrest,even though the charges were subsequently reduced to a less serious violation that the club said “will not result in a criminal conviction”. The Magpies had maintained that De Goey’s priors were an important consideration in suspending him indefinitely.

De Goey’s management had expressed disappointment,on his behalf,that he was exiled,but the De Goey camp wisely chose not to challenge the stand-down – an option raised by the AFL Players Association.

It is hard to measure the impact of Collingwood’s change at board level and of the ascension of new president Jeff Browne on De Goey’s situation,except to say that it did him no harm.

De Goey,according to club sources,has been chastened by the experience of sitting in a New York cell with his career on the brink. Who knows whether this brush with football mortality will,in the words of the club statement,see him change behaviour and “rebuild trust”?

Regardless of what De Goey does and whether the club keeps him beyond his free-agency season,like the player,the Magpies are better placed than when De Goey’s arrest dampened their post-season siesta.

Having ducked a more severe dent to the club reputation,they’ve retained De Goey as a football asset,when they might have lost him for zilch. They have the option of gaining a decent draft pick in free-agency compensation,or matching a contract offer and forcing a trade.

Conversely,they can keep him in black and white,presumably on fewer dollars than he would have commanded had he not found in trouble,again,in another part of the world.

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