Fans and AFL heavyweights have slammed Magpies star Jordan De Goey’s apology after last week’s incident in Bali, claiming ‘he’s been taught that there are no consequences for his actions’.
De Goey was once again a notable absentee at Magpies training on Wednesday morning after flying back into the country on Sunday.
Since deleted video first emerged last Friday showing the party boy making crude sexual gestures at popular Bali club Motel Mexicola and attempting to pull friend Remy Jackson’s top off as she batted him away.
Prominent AFL figures such as Brendan Fevola and commentator Gerard Healy have lined up to criticise De Goey’s action, while one Twitter user pointed out the Bali incident was just one in a long list of off-field indiscretions that had resulted in just four missed games.
‘In four years, Jordan De Goey got in a bar brawl and lied about it to the club, drove his car drunk, then without a licence, was charged with rape, forcible touching and assault, been convicted of harassment, and has missed a total of four games cumulatively for all the incidents.’
Jordan De Goey partying with friend Remy Jackson in Bali nightclub Motel Mexicola
One Twitter user savaged De Goey and Collingwood for his latest in a long list of indiscretions
Collingwood had given the 26-year-old permission to fly to Bali during the club’s bye round – a head-scratching decision to many in the footy world given he wound up in jail the last time he went on an overseas trip.
Club officials told waiting media on Wednesday morning that De Goey would not be in attendance for the club’s main training session ahead of their match against GWS on Sunday.
HIs absence casts doubt on De Goey’s availability for the crucial clash at the MCG, with the Magpies sitting just out of the top eight on percentage.
It’s also another blow to his hopes of securing a blockbuster new contract, after the Pies took their two-year $1.6million offer (which included a trigger for a further two years) off the table.
Jordan De Goey celebrates kicking a goal against Hawthorn in round 12
Former Carlton star and bad boy Brendan Fevola had a few choice words of advice for De Goey, recalling that he ‘was not respected’ after his playing career because of his ‘off-field antics’.
‘I was in a similar situation back when I was playing footy, I didn’t really have the people around me,’ he told Melbourne’s 101.9 radio station.
‘I thought that I was better than anything else and it cost me my career.
‘You are blessed to be playing footy and earning money that people would dream about earning. Go play footy for eight years, don’t go anywhere and if you go somewhere don’t tell anyone.
‘You go to Bali, everyone knows you go there, it doesn’t matter if you stuff up or not. It’s going to come back and it’s going to look bad.’
Former Carlton great Brendan Fevola also had off-field issues during his glittering career
Jordan De Goey attempts to remove friend Remy Jackson’s top in the since-deleted video
De Goey was fined $25,000 by the Magpies on Tuesday, which is fully suspended until the end of the season, before he revealed a shock health diagnosis was part of ‘why I make the mistakes that I do’.
‘Late last year, I was diagnosed with ADHD and I am trying to become more aware of why I make mistakes that I do. I have again made a mistake – this is an ongoing journey for me – and I remain absolutely committed to changing,’ De Goey said in an official Collingwood statement released on Monday afternoon.
‘I will be seeking further support to take the appropriate and necessary steps to learn and improve as a person.’
Jordan De Goey celebrates with fans after Collingwood’s win over Melbourne in round 13
Footy fans, journalists and former AFL greats were quick to slam the reference to his health diagnosis as an excuse that just ‘didn’t wash’ and were critical of Collingwood suspended $25,000 fine.
‘If Collingwood thinks he has badly wronged the club, as we just heard (CEO) Mark Anderson say and his apology attests, then a suspended fine, given his recent history, simply doesn’t wash,’ commentator and former player Gerard Healy said on 3AW.
‘Doesn’t pass the glorious pub test. In fact, it doesn’t pass any test of punishment fitting the crime.’
Remy Jackson was pictured partying with Jordan De Goey in Bali
De Goey at a popular Bali Club in a since-deleted Instagram video
One Twitter user took particular exception to De Goey using his mental diagnosis as some sort of excuse for the incident.
‘ADHD may help explain some of his behaviour, but it may not as well, and it certainly doesn’t excuse it. Yet bringing it up now, after the 379th time he’s been in trouble, makes it look like an excuse,’ the Twitter user wrote.
Another posted: ‘Don’t use a disability for an excuse for what you did’, while another was a little more forthright in his criticism.
‘As one of the hundreds of thousands of people with ADHD that hasn’t ever assaulted a woman at a bar, Jordan De Goey can f*** the f*** off. You, Andrew Laming and all other degenerates that use a ‘newly-discovered cognitive functioning impairment’ to explain away sexual assault.’
Jordan De Goey (centre) playing in the Queens Birthday game before heading to Bali
It didn’t take long for De Goey to find himself in hot water, after being a highly-rated pick five in the 2014 draft. He lied about getting into a bar fight during his third preseason at the club, before being charged over a string of driving offences across 2018 and 2021.
Jordan De Goey (right) spent the night in jail during 2021 after a wild night partying in New York
He was charged in 2020 with indecent assault after a 2015 incident, though the charges were later dropped, before the most serious of his indiscretions in October 2021.
De Goey was arrested in a New York nightclub after a wild night of drunken partying, and charged with forcible touching of a woman and an assault of one of the female’s male friends.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the forcible touching charge and downgraded the assault charge to second-degree harassment – to which he pleaded guilty.
De Goey pictured on social media partying in New York during October 2021
The court ordered him to undergo anger and alcohol counselling back in Australia, while Collingwood and AFL-imposed sanctions included a $10,000 charity donation and part-time work with the Salvation army.
When announcing the club’s punishment for the Bali incident, CEO Mark Anderson confirmed there would be no suspension, but instead a suspended fine.
‘Our club’s very strong position is that disrespect towards women, in any form, is never acceptable and we strongly condemn it,’ he said.
‘Jordan will undertake further behavioural education for his conduct. Jordan has also been given a sanction of $25,000 which is suspended until the end of the Club’s 2022 season to be of good behaviour until then.’
Prominent AFL journalist Mark Robinson blasted the penalty, saying Collingwood and the AFL ‘let down all women’.
‘How can Collingwood be so appalled with De Goey’s behaviour in Bali and then hit him across the face with a stick of fairy floss?’ he said in the Herald Sun.
‘Collingwood admitted it was wrong, more importantly De Goey eventually admitted what he did was wrong — and it took plenty to convince him — but the penalty is effectively a bond for a player already on notice for events in New York in the last off-season.
‘It’s staggering to accept the league ticked off this lowly penalty, the same league which champions women in the game and which abhors any disrespect towards women. The AFL has let down all women in this case,’ said Robinson.
Jordan De Goey has been given just a $25,000 suspended fine by Collingwood
Kane Cornes also blasted De Goey and the club over the incident.
‘Disrespect to women can’t be tolerated and Jordan understands the significance of this … I would have thought probably four games and a $10,000 fine (was warranted),’ he told SEN SA Breakfast.
‘And (he gets) nothing. He hasn’t been sanctioned. Let’s cut the c**p. There is no fine, there is no penalty. So how seriously have they taken it?’
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