Given the size of an AFL list, the difference between footballers is noticeable – from depth players to role players, stars, and the handful known as “superstars”.
It can be difficult to isolate the exact moment when a footballer earns a place in that final group. Most slowly build a body of work, while a few have an iconic performance, such as Lance Franklin’s seven goals in his September debut – including the match-winner from outside 50 – in Hawthorn’s 2007 elimination final win over Adelaide.
For the past couple of years, Jordan De Goey has been considered one of the game’s best young talents. Last week, the forward revealed that North Melbourne offered him a superstar’s wage – a $5m, five-year offer that would’ve seen him join what is believed to be an AFL millionaires club that includes Dustin Martin, Lance Franklin and Nat Fyfe.
On Thursday night against Richmond he proved his worth in front of more than 70,000 fans at the MCG. And the transformation may have come in a single moment during the game’s second quarter when he leapt atop of the Tigers’ Oleg Markov for one of the marks of the year – an iconic hanger that the AFL would do well to put on a T-shirt.
“De Goey! What about this package? He is going to get the turnstiles ticking over, this boy,” wailed Seven’s James Brayshaw.
Before Brayshaw could take a breath, De Goey had swung onto his right and kicked his second goal to put the Magpies four goals ahead. He finished with five goals in a best on ground performance as Collingwood trounced the joint flag favourites by 44-points, destroying whatever remained of the Tigers’ defensive Zen aura after losing Alex Rance to an ACL injury.
In the corresponding round last year, the fifth pick from the 2014 national draft was sitting on the sidelines, thanks to a club-imposed suspension for drink-driving, which this followed another club-imposed suspension for lying about his involvement in a bar fight in 2017. After some difficult conversations with key figures at the club, De Goey strung together a year that justified the Pies’ faith in him – averaging 16 possessions and more than two goals a game, punctuated by three goals in the grand final.
While the season is only two rounds old, indications are that De Goey, if he isn’t already, will soon complete the transition from bad boy to superstar. He, along with Chris Mayne and the emerging Darcy Moore, is representative of Collingwood’s newfound joie de vivre under coach Nathan Buckley.
“As long as I’m happy and I’m loving what I’m doing and I’ve got good relationships with the people around me, I’m going to be happy,” he told the Jock and Journo podcast last week. “And when I’m happy, I’m playing my best footy,”
Coach Buckley believes the sky’s the limit for De Goey. “We’re seeing him in a forward role at the moment and everyone expects that he will become a midfielder at some point but he’s just so powerful and a very ballistic player,” he said. “It is important for every individual to work out what the best balance is for them. The longer you’re in it and the more you listen and learn and take notice of what works for you and what doesn’t, the sooner you find your sweet spot.”
Right now, De Goey is smack bang in the middle of a sweet spot – something made all the easier when you’ve got a midfield such as the Pies’ that runs so deep it defies a lazy tabloid portmanteau. In trying to counter some of the delivery into Collingwood’s forward 50, the task of Richmond’s defenders was at times akin to throwing eggs at a bulldozer.
“At my position it really depends on the ball movement,” said De Goey after the game. “Tonight, I think we were really dominant with that we always switched the ball and opened up channels through the middle and that gave me access up forward.”
On Thursday night the Richmond onballers were merely wallflowers as Collingwood won the ball a whopping 164 more times, and controlled the game to such an extent that they out-marked the Tigers 174 to 78 – including a league record 99 marks in the first half. If De Goey and Collingwood continue the way they played on Thursday night, deep runs in September may soon become a matter of habit.
The 23-year-old De Goey is already a transcendent talent in the AFL, and now all eyes are on the game’s newest superstar, waiting to see what he’ll do next – particularly next week against a resurgent West Coast in the grand final replay at the MCG.
