The likelihood of Jordan De Goey staying at Collingwood has significantly decreased, per a recent report.
That’s according to The Age’s Michael Gleeson, who broke the news on Monday night that De Goey had rejected Collingwood’s contract offer over behavioural clauses included.
The offer is supposedly a five-year deal, but with De Goey’s career marred by off-field incidents, the Magpies have included clauses to protect the club.
But with the revelations De Goey won’t agree to the terms, Gleeson says the situation is “looking more pessimistic than ever”.
He believes there’s now a sense both parties have negotiated as far as they’re willing to go, although there is still room to move.
“All things considered, he would like to be there,” Gleeson told Sportsday shortly after the news dropped.
“The club would like him to be there, the footy department wants him to be there, but given his history of off-field issues over time, they want protection in case there’s another incident.
“They’re saying, ‘look at the history, we can’t just have no protection there’.
“There’s been some movement from what Collingwood initially wanted and what Jordy said. He has said he’s prepared to have something in there, but not what they want. Jordy’s camp believes it’s far too arbitrary and gives too much discretion to Collingwood to say, ‘we can rip it up if we want to’.
“There is a sense of, ‘yes, this can be part of a negotiating process’, but there’s also a greater sense that there’s been a negotiating process and they’ve got to this point and he’s said, ‘I’m just not doing it, I’m not going as far as you want these clauses to go’.”
An off-field incident in Bali over Collingwood’s mid-season break saw De Goey fined by the club and have his contract offer taken off the table, but a strong end to the home and away season and a blistering finals campaign had many believing the dynamic midfielder would stay at the AIA Centre.
But with St Kilda still holding a strong interest in attracting De Goey to Moorabbin, Gleeson says the star Magpie is more likely than not to depart at the end of 2022.
“He’s stuck his ground, now it is really back with the club and there is a strong sense that they feel like they’ve gone as far as they’re going to go,” he continued.
“There’s still going to be some discussion yet, but at the moment, it’s looking more pessimistic than ever.
“As it stands now it’s a real standoff and I’m feeling like it’s more likely at this stage that unless there’s movement from Collingwood he’s not going to be there.”
De Goey is a restricted free agent and Collingwood could theoretically match any offer the Saints make to force a trade.
However, it is understood St Kilda would be able to offer De Goey a larger contract financially.