De Goey returns ‘in high energy’

COLLINGWOOD coach Craig McRae has rejected reports star Jordan De Goey was unhappy with the club’s handling of his latest off-field saga.

De Goey will play his first game on Saturday night since his controversial mid-season trip to Bali that resulted in the 26-year-old copping a suspended $25,000 fine and taking personal leave from Collingwood’s win over GWS last weekend.

McRae confirmed the midfielder-forward would face the Suns on the Gold Coast after training strongly on Thursday.

“He trained really well today; he trained with high energy the other day; he trained with high energy today. It looks like he is in a good place to perform well,” McRae said.

“I caught up with him on Monday and he seemed like he was in a good place, he was ready to come back and deal with everything that was going on. He comes back full of energy.”

When asked if there were anything to reports suggesting De Goey was unhappy with the Magpies following his Bali trip, McRae said: “No, not at all. I met with him and his manager and to be honest it was about moving past to be able to then step forward.”

Collingwood recently pulled its contract offer to De Goey that could have seen the midfielder-forward pocket up to $3.2m over four years.

McRae would not discuss the out-of-contract De Goey’s contract situation on Thursday. “I want him to get into it and be himself, not only in his football but even the stuff outside of football as well,” he said.

“He’s been doing a lot of work on that and we’ve seen growth, and clearly he’s got more to do.

“I’m not going to talk about anyone’s contract, not just Jordy’s, but I do talk about what the next 10 weeks looks like. It’s about just trying to perform at his best, give to the team and be a good teammate.”

The Magpies will be without star defender Jeremy Howe (illness) on Saturday, while mature-age recruit Charlie Dean is in line to make his debut.

“(Howe) has unfortunately got a virus to his stomach,” McRae said.

“If the antibiotics do what they are meant to do, he will be back training on Monday.”