Jordan De Goey is adding more dollar signs to his new deal with every passing minute he spends on the field in something of a double-edged sword for Collingwood.
Plus the Giants’ major roadblock for success, why Richmond should be wary in trade talks and more.
The big issues from week two of the finals in Talking Points!
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IS RICHMOND MAKING HAWTHORN’S MISTAKE?
The Hawks were the dominant side of the mid-2010s, winning a remarkable three straight premierships.
In a bid to stay in that premiership window, coach Alastair Clarkson opted to try and top-up his squad with the inclusions of Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara, Jarman Impey, Jack Scrimshaw, Tom Scully and Chad Wingard in the following years.
But by 2019, missing the eight with a ninth place finish, the premiership window was firmly shut and left the Hawks with their earliest draft pick at 45 during that busy trade period.
Three successive bottom five finishes ensured the Hawks were firmly in a rebuild stage where Clarkson departed and Sam Mitchell took over as coach.
Richmond now find themselves in the same scenario after winning three premierships in the space of four years.
Hawthorn’s premiership window slammed shut within four years of their last premiership. Should the Tigers follow the same fate – they have just two years left to get back to the top before a full rebuild could be required.
Following on from news veterans Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt will go round again in 2023, the Tigers are already topping up their squad with Giants Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper both selecting Richmond as their preferred trade destination.
But SEN’s Kane Cornes has warned Richmond to learn from Hawthorn’s mistakes.
“It’s not going to be (Tigers’ coach) Damien Hardwick’s problem. It’s going to be very unlikely that he’s going to coach Richmond for 20 years,” Cornes said.
“So, he’s gone, ‘Get me another premiership in the next three years’. He wants another premiership now and if it takes seven years to get them well when Jacob Hopper is 33 in the seventh year of that contract it’s not going to be Hardwick’s problem.
“Similarly with (Alastair) Clarkson at Hawthorn. (He said) ‘Get me Wingard, O’Meara and Mitchell – it’s not going to be my problem, I’m going to be long gone’.
“I’m not sure it’s the most responsible move from Richmond to give players like that seven years.”
West Coast famously “sold the farm” to get Tim Kelly home from Geelong in a bid to keep their premiership window open in 2019.
But that hasn’t worked in the club’s favour with the Eagles failing to finish top four in 2019 and 2020 as they bowed out early in finals, before missing the eight completely in 2021 and then the disaster of a season in 2022.
It has been reported Richmond were prepared to offer seven-year deals for GWS midfielders Taranto and Hopper.
QUERIES OVER DEES FITNESS AMID COSTLY TACTICAL MOVE
Fox Footy’s Nathan Buckley questioned Melbourne’s ability to run out games in 2022, after being overrun in seven games in their premiership defence.
After stunning the competition with their gut-running in 2021, including the Grand Final in Perth where they simply burnt the Bulldogs with an epic second half blitz, Melbourne couldn’t replicate their efforts late this season.
Since Round 11, Melbourne scored 98 goals in the first half, compared to just 67 in the second half to finish their season – and lost eight of those 14 games.
And of those eight losses, they led at half time in five of them. They trailed Sydney in both losses by just two and six points respectively and by only four points to Geelong in those three other games.
Melbourne had been unbeaten in the first 10 rounds where they had a goal ratio of 65 in the first half and 70 in the second.
“They’ve proven incapable to run games out as often,” Buckley said.
“They’ve had leads of four or five goals this season and been overrun.
“They were running out games better than any other team (last year) and they ran through the competition.”
Commentator Kane Cornes also questioned the Demons’ fitness after the decision to move Angus Brayshaw off Lachie Neale in the semi final loss — despite Brayshaw’s lockdown role restricting the Brownlow Medallist to just three effective disposals to half time.
“I don’t know why they’ve changed the match up at half time, it was (Tom) Sparrow who went to him,” Cornes said on the Sunday Footy Show.
“Perhaps Brayshaw is not fit enough? That’s the only explanation I can find.
“Perhaps the Melbourne side across the board hasn’t been fit enough.
“Have they taken their foot off the gas through pre-season?”
Cornes said Neale simply “ran them into the ground” in the second half where he racked up 18 disposals, five clearances and four score involvements.
The Demons did lose their fitness boss in Darren Burgess to Adelaide for family reasons after the premiership success.
‘SCINTILATING’ DE GOEY GAINING BARGAINING POWER
Jordan De Goey is in serious form right now including a dominant best-on-ground showing against Fremantle to help Collingwood secure its preliminary final berth in Sydney.
The star midfielder/forward tallied 24 disposals, a season-best 12 score involvements and a game-high 626 metres gained in Saturday night’s semi-final win over Dockers in front of a ruckus MCG, with his contested and clearance work, burst play and defensive tenacity a highlight.
It comes after the highest-rated game of De Goey’s career last week against Geelong (28.7) in the league’s official player ratings — and highest of any player across the first week of the finals — with the scorching-hot 26-year old powering the Pies’ deep finals run and flag dream.
And in a boost for the Pies, Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph revealed on Fox Footy that De Goey is “likely” to re-sign with the club on a four-year deal that includes a two-year performance based trigger — much like the deal it pulled from him after his Bali exploits after the June incident that continued a string of off-field offences.
Of course though, news of Do Goey’s likely re-signing came before his impeccable performance against Freo. So will Collingwood now need to up the ante in contract talks after the star’s latest masterclass?
Speaking on Fox Footy’s Best on Ground, former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said there’s “no doubt” the bad-boy star is getting more bargaining power amid his terrific finals series.
“He’s now a proven finals performer, across his career he steps up when the games are at their toughest. That’s a fair trait to have,” he said after the Pies’ win over Fremantle.
“Jordy De Goey has just been so consistent. He finished with one goal when he probably should’ve had two or three but set a few more up.
“His energy in defence was as good as we’ve ever seen. I think that comes from a guy who is growing into himself.
“Due to the stories around the Collingwood on-field performance, the off-field stuff has bled away. It gives him that room to be able to do what he does best and shine on the MCG. He’s the player of the match tonight.”
De Goey himself is clearly full of confidence at the moment too.
Asked about next week’s preliminary final after the Swans defeated Collingwood just four weeks ago, Pies coach Craig McRae said during his post-match press conference: “Jordy told me he didn’t play, so we’re much better for it (this time around).”
Perhaps most impressively is that the former Pick 5 played through a grade one AC joint sprain against Freo sustained against the Cats last week.
Former Bulldog and Tiger Nathan Brown said on Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show he thinks De Goey is in career-best form and praised him for standing up in big games after facing pressure heading into the finals.
Meanwhile Saints champion Nick Riewoldt thinks the Pies gun “makes the really difficult look pretty easy.”
No one will really remember that last one where he just shrugs off the tackle and is able to get it in long. He has that amazing ability … not many players in the competition can do that,” he said on Best On Ground.
“His performance tonight is on the back of the highest rated game of his career last week. He’s in scintillating form.”
MAJOR PROBLEM IN GIANT EXODUS
Former Giants coach Leon Cameron says retention of players and salary cap management remains a key issue for expansion teams such as GWS as several more stars explore moves away from the club.
It emerged this week that the Giants’ gun midfield duo Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper had both requested trades to Richmond, which comes amid salary cap pressure at the western-Sydney based side, while the likes of Tanner Bruhn and Bobby Hill are expected to follow suit.
Of course, GWS has long been forced to pay overs to its players to retain them and fend off plays from rival clubs, yet has still lost a host of stars along the way including Jeremy Cameron, Adam Treloar, Jack Steele and Dylan Shiel.
Speaking on SEN radio, Cameron belies it’s a major roadblock in trying to keep the expansion clubs competitive over a long period.
“Management of salary cap, that’s tough being here in Queensland or New South Wales, keeping players, that retention and keeping them from going back to South Australia or Victoria,” he said.
“A side that finishes 16th loses two guys, one has won a best and fairest and one has finished in the top four probably three or four times in the last four or five years, it doesn’t seem right.
“The last four or five years it has been tough at the club, because of losing players like (Jeremy) Cameron and talking about Hopper and Taranto and (Jye) Caldwell and these guys, you don’t want that, and I don’t know the perfect answer of how you can stop it.
“It doesn’t look great for the game, you don’t want kids being developed at the Gold Coast Suns or the Giants, two start-up clubs, and then all of a sudden they get to their peak five or six years in and then bang they’re gone.”
It comes as GWS and Richmond are set to engage in a fascinating and unprecedented negotiation over Taranto and Hopper where the Tigers will clearly need to cough up a fair haul to land the star duo in a rare double coup.
Reports emerged that the Giants were set to command two first-round picks for Taranto alone, and a top-10 pick minimum for Hopper, while Richmond currently hold selections 12, 19, 30 and 84.
However Cameron predicted the Tigers would need to include players in the deal too.
“No doubt there’s going to be picks … I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some players in play there, that’s up to the Giants and the Tigers to work out,” he said.
“There’s no precedent, you can’t look back and say, ‘well two players going to one club at that high level, where do you go.’
“To try and bundle up a package to make sure that works for both clubs, clearly it’s going to have to be a combination of picks and a player or two”
