Steele in hot seat as leader at Magpies

JORDAN De Goey’s fourhour plane ride to Perth alongside Steele Sidebottom should have been a life-changing experience.

One in which the veteran vice-captain imparted 12 years of experience living in the AFL spotlight to a player who in six seasons has twice been suspended by Collingwood, dumped two managers and now been charged with indecent assault.

Instead, De Goey’s first comment might have been: “They got you, too.”

De Goey and Sidebottom spent time in the company of Victoria police in remarkably different circumstances these past weeks.

Sidebottom committed significant COVID breaches but despite being dazed and confused in Williamstown by all accounts showed impeccable manner.

De Goey was on Saturday charged and then bailed for indecent assault for a five-yearold incident he believed was behind him.

But it underlines the high farce of Sidebottom lecturing anyone about misbehaviour this year, no matter how faultless he has been in his career.

When Nathan Buckley and Geoff Walsh have that heartto-heart with him when they arrive in Perth, his best course of action would be to volunteer to stand down from the club’s leadership group. Not because the media calls for it, or because Collingwood is besieged by issues over race and culture. But because if Sidebottom had lectured De Goey, or been forced to sit in judgment of his position in the team, his junior would surely have been thinking: “Where do you get off?”

Sidebottom standing down would be an effective way of showing the club is living Nathan Buckley’s mission statement this week that everyone at Collingwood is trying to better themselves and the club.