Collingwood senior coach Craig McRae has broken his silence on troubled forward Jordan De Goey, stating he'd love to "get my arms around him" and having him back at the club.
De Goey is currently on personal leave for the foreseeable future after being handed a suspended $25,000 fine following misconduct on an overseas mid-season trip.
Speaking on SENย on Thursday, McRae stated he was aware of De Goey's plans to head to Indonesia, and reflected on a message his former coach Leigh Matthews passed down on the levels of trust a coach must have in a player.
"I knew I was going to Bali," McRae said.
"I've got Leigh Matthews in my head. Leigh used to say to us 'we'll treat you like men and we'll give you the trust of it, and you'll act like men. We treat you like boys, and you act like boys'. I've got that ringing in my head.
"I want all our players to feel there's a level of trust to make their own decisions. Some are going to make good ones and some are going to make poor ones at times.
"I live in a moral compass world where I want to take accountability for my actions. I take responsibility for things that I do right and wrong, and I've made many mistakes, and I own up and I go 'nup not good enough, I want to be better'.
"You make a mistake, which we all do at times, take accountability, and we give our players the opportunity and possibility to take accountability and responsibility for their actions.
"In Jordy's case, I can't help but think right now I just want to get him back. I really do. I want to get my arms around him.
"I spoke to him yesterday and he's not in the place to step back in the footy club right now. He's got to step through a few things first, and to get into a space where he can do that.
"It's a safe place for him our footy club. I want him to feel loved and supported. It's in my DNA, love and support, and not only him but all our players.
"Get him in our four walls, lets get our arms around and help him move forward on this."
When questioned if he or the club had looked to stop De Goey from venturing overseas amid a finals pish for the Magpies, McRae said a decision to stop his players wouldn't be rubber-stamped under his tenure.
"I don't think as long as I'm the coach, I'm not gonna say 'no, you're not going to do that'," he said.
"You got to trust people. We're in a place we want to treat them like adults and he's got his management team and other people around him to help him make these decisions.
"Rightly or wrongly a decision was made, so we can't change that. What we can do is learn and educate and make our players better."
McRae said that De Goey will eventually speak on his actions, but ius currently not in the right space to do so.
The Collingwood coach called for patience as the 26-year-old continued to reflect on his recent indiscretions.
"He's in a space where he's taking accountability and responsibly," McRae added.
"At the moment we haven't heard from him to say those words out loud. He's going to get to a place where that's going to be the case."
Having granted De Goey personal leave, the Magpies have ruled out their star forward-turned-midfiedler from Sunday's clash with the GWS Giants.
The club have not disclosed a return date for De Goey.
