Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has hit back at “hysteria” surrounding Jordan Goey over his hit on Elijah Hewett, leading to a tense radio exchange with Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes.
De Goey’s crushing bump concussed the 19-year old Hewett during Saturday’s clash and saw the Magpies star get sent straight to the Tribunal, with the incident graded as careless and severe impact – the highest possible grading – and high contact.
It means De Goey will miss at least the next three matches, ruling him out of the top-of-the-ladder Pies’ clashes with Melbourne on the King’s Birthday, then Adelaide and Gold Coast.
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Speaking on SEN radio on Monday morning, Buckley took exception to some of the blowback De Goey has received, particularly from fellow SEN Breakfast co-host Cornes, who labelled it a “weak act” on Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show.
It led to the frosty radio exchange between the two AFL greats, with Buckley suggesting De Goey’s “football action” had been overblown.
“(De Goey) definitely deserves to be up at Tribunal and he’ll get the weeks that he deserves. For mine it’s a three, but I think the reaction post this incident has been over the top,” Buckley said on SEN.
“I thought it was a football action, it was an instinctive football action. It’s one not accepted in the game now. There was no raised elbows or real jumping off the ground.
“You (Cornes) made a comment about you thought it was ‘weak.’ Yeah, nah, I don’t agree with you at all.”
Buckley also believes Cornes linking De Goey’s history of off-field issues with the weekend’s incident was unfair.
“There was stuff you tried to wrap in about his off-field misdemeanours … you’re judging that every player needs to have a certain level of professionalism and understanding of what it takes to be an AFL footballer,” Buckley added.
“You compared him to (Marcus) Bontempelli. If you compare him to some players who have the same class of talent … that’s only one part of performance.
“There’s different upbringings, there’s different ways of seeing the world and different motivations that come to play to pull the final package together.
“But all of that is separate to what happened on the field with Jordy De Goey. That was a knee jerk, instant and blink of an eye outcome. I don’t reckon five metres before that he was thinking he was going to iron the kid out, I’m thinking he was thinking he was going to go in and tackle him.”
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Amid the AFL’s crack down on head high contact and concussions, the Magpies great also argued there needs to be a duty of care on players protecting themselves.
“There’s a responsibility for players to look after themselves on the football field that players have been absolved of. The duty of care needs to go to an opposition player … the individual needs to look after himself,” Buckley said.
“After he handballed he was probably half a second from protecting himself, he was in the process of getting his arm.”
Cornes responded by saying Buckley was “being extremely lenient,” contending De Goey, who’s among the Brownlow Medal favourites amid a career-best season, had other options than bumping Hewett.
“This guy (De Goey) is a skilful player who can turn on a dime, pick the ball up and snap it over his shoulder and we go: ‘How good’s that?’” Cornes said on SEN.
“In the moment, he’s got options – he can tackle and he can corral. (It was) A defenceless player who’s gotten rid of the ball and he jumps off the ground and smashes his shoulder into his head.”
Buckley added: “He’s not a defenceless player, he’s a footballer on an AFL field,” to which Cornes replied: “He’s an 18-year old kid who got rid of the footy and wasn’t expecting to be bumped in the head in that moment.”
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Buckley continued: “You reckon Jordy had time to calculate he’s an 18-year old kid? You’re on a football field, you should be expecting contact.
“You tried to wrap up the fact that Jordy shouldn’t have had that contest against that opposition because their lowly ranked.
“It’s not going to be part of the calculation. As a coach, I want my players to go out and play on edge all the time. A guy like Jordy De Goey, who’s a physical beast and does play on the edge and with aggression.
“The way you played and what you think is weak, would be different to what he thinks was weak.”
The seven-time All-Australian also questioned West Coast’s response to the incident including the club posting the MRO verdict on social media as well as Dom Sheed lamenting he and his teammates not retaliating directly afterwards.
“What are West Coast tweeting about Jordy De Goey (going to the Tribunal)? It’s none of their business,” Buckley said.
“And Dom Sheed saying: ‘I’ve now seen the vision and maybe we should’ve stood up for him.’ None of the players stood up because it wasn’t seen as anything outside of a football act.
“Otherwise his teammates would’ve got over and remonstrated.”