Collingwood livewire Jordan De Goey has spoken at length about his mental health and ADHD diagnosis.
De Goey in September knocked back a lucrative offer from St Kilda to re-sign with Collingwood on a five-year contract.
It came after his initial contract offer was withdrawn and he was handed a $25,000 suspended fine for pulling a female friend’s top down in a video captured in Bali during Collingwood’s mid-season bye.
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The 26-year-old’s controversy in Bali was the latest in a series of off-field controversies that have threatened to derail the talented mid-forward’s career.
He revealed after a trip to Bali last year he had been diagnosed with ADHD – attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder – although AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan pointed out afterwards such a diagnosis was not an excuse for disrespectful behaviour.
Speaking on The Unlaced Podcast this week, De Goey offered a window into his day-to-day struggles with the diagnosis.
“It’s a hard one because I am still learning about it now. It’s almost like this hyper-focus and then just a massive drop off,” he said.
“People can last the whole day and just cruise along the day, whereas I’m like balls-out all day and then I’ll crash and then I’m balls-out again and I will crash and then I’m balls-out. That’s how I am, that’s how I work.
“I can’t sit still, I can’t go home and put the TV on and watch a movie, I can’t do that. I need to be out of the house. It just pisses me off being inside.”
De Goey added the inability to “do anything half-arsed” was a benefit to his footy ability, but had the capacity to negatively impact his life.
Off the field, he said, “if we are having drinks I will drink until I am drunk. It’s not one or the other.”
De Goey heaped praise on Collingwood’s sport psychologist, Jacqui Louder, for her work with him.
“Working with Jacquie it’s almost like I have a checklist in my head now where I have to tick things off before I can do something. When you are young it’s like, “F** it, I am here to have fun”,” he said.
“At times there are things you wish you could change or do differently. Now looking back I am really lucky I had Jacquie.
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“She knows everyone around me, she knows all my best mates. You (guys) are almost like nets for me. I’ve put myself in a good position with the right support around me and I feel like I’m safe. I feel like if I’m doing something that I shouldn’t be doing one of you boys will say, “Pull your f***ing head in,” and I will be (saying): “You are right”.”
De Goey said external perception of his training habits or attitude riled him at times.
“The other day I just was eating lunch and this old lady – she would’ve been 70 or 75 – comes up to me and says, ‘Congratulations, you guys had a great year’. And she goes, ‘I see (Scott) Pendlebury is training, why aren’t you?’,” he recalled.
“That’s what she said to me. It was the first time I had ever met her and I was sitting there trying to enjoy lunch. I said, ‘How do you know I am not training?’
“She said, ‘I don’t’, I said, ‘Exactly. I would appreciate you not saying that.’ That’s just proving people hear this stuff and automatically believe it. Just because I’m not one to consistently post photos of me training or other things, I prefer to do it alone or with a close mate. It’s hard work and all the other players are doing it.
“Sometimes you get pigeonholed into a category because it’s something in your past or something that’s happened in your past.
“For me it’s just trying to build to be something different, to be something better than that.”
