De Goey rejects Collingwood offer: report

Anna Harrington | September 26, 2022

Controversial Collingwood utility Jordan De Goey has reportedly rejected his AFL club’s contract offer because of behavioural clauses.

De Goey, who was arrested in New York last October and was the centre of more trouble in Bali this year, has been offered a fresh five-year deal by the Magpies.

But while wanting to stay at Collingwood, he has rejected the offer because behavioural clauses in the contract are too broad, The Age newspaper is reporting.

The Magpies’ contract offer stipulated that if De Goey broke the clauses in the initial two years of the deal, he would forfeit the rest of the contract.

De Goey was stood down by Collingwood from October 31 last year to mid-January amid the US court proceedings, where he pleaded guilty to harassment, which didn’t carry a criminal conviction.

After returning, he was given personal leave in June this year after footage emerged of the 26-year-old making lewd gestures in a Bali nightclub during a mid-season break.

He again returned to action and was a key performer in Collingwood’s run to be beaten preliminary finalists.

Meanwhile, GWS football boss Jason McCartney wants AFL draftees to have longer initial contracts as his club prepares to lose second-year midfielder Tanner Bruhn to Geelong.

Bruhn, a Geelong local who was GWS’ pick No.12 in the 2020 draft, is poised to request a long-expected trade to his home town.

The standard AFL draftee contract is two years and Bruhn’s departure would follow Jye Caldwell heading to Essendon two years ago.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” McCartney told AFL Trade Radio on Monday.

“Tanner’s a wonderful young man and invested really heavily in our football club.

“He’s played 30 games over the last two years and there’s probably not many from that compromised draft in the COVID years that have played that many games.

“It’s a reality we will just have work with it now.

“But two years … we make no bones about it, we would love to see our early draft picks at least being a minimum three years because two years can drift pretty quickly.”

GWS are eyeing a monster draft haul through trading Bruhn and Richmond-bound pair Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.

McCartney expected forward Bobby Hill’s switch to Collingwood to be a straightforward affair early in the trade period.

Elsewhere, Western Bulldogs veteran Jason Johannisen has signed a new two-year deal.

And Brisbane have delisted Lithuanian-born Irish category B rookie Deividas Uosis, 2018 first-round draft pick Ely Smith and pre-season pick Mitchell Cox, none of whom made their AFL debuts.