THERE are few players who get through their careers without a down year and Collingwood midfielder Jordan De Goey is no exception.
That doesn't mean the third-year onballer was accepting of what he classed as a below-par 2016 season.
"I don't know of many players who haven't had a year they'd like to forget," De Goey told AFL.com.au.
"But there's no doubt coming out of my first year and showing a bit, I didn't get as much out of my second year as I would have liked."
The disappointment in his voice clear, De Goey is working hard to deliver on what he produced during a promising first season in 2015.
"All you want to do is perform and show that you can play at the highest level. When you're not doing it, it's extremely disappointing."
De Goey averaged 18.3 disposals from 20 games last season, where he divided his time between midfield and attack.
The 20-year-old was also ranked sixth at the Pies in total inside 50s, eighth in clearances and ninth in contested possessions.
Although his disposal output increased substantially (an average of five touches per game more in 2016 when compared to 2015), the impact De Goey was having on games was lacking.
After receiving a NAB AFL Rising Star nomination in 2015, many observers expected De Goey to rise to a new level in his second season, and coach Nathan Buckley felt compelled to give him more midfield minutes.
The coach’s confidence was underlined by some spectacular performances through the pre-season competition, especially a best afield 24 disposals (11 contested), five clearances and seven inside 50s against Geelong in Collingwood’s first pre-season contest.
To say there was a buzz surrounding De Goey as the home and away season began would have been an understatement.
"I started really well in that first NAB (Challenge) game but it all went downhill a bit from there," De Goey reflected.
"It wasn't confidence or anything like that. It was more about mindset and forgetting about what I'm good at. I went away from that a bit last year.
"I was constantly trying to work on it and figure out how to improve and stuff like that, but it's not overnight thing – it doesn't just happen."
De Goey, Collingwood's first selection (No.5 overall) in the 2014 NAB AFL Draft, was dropped after the club's round 19 win over West Coast, a key learning experience for a young player.
"I could sort of see it coming so it didn't really come out of the blue," he said.
"For me it was just about getting back to playing my best footy and that's how I saw it."
De Goey decided it was best to go back to basics this pre-season and has been working on the fundamentals of clean hands, sharpening his skills at spreading quickly from the contest, the defensive aspects of his game and his positioning in transition.
De Goey has been watching edits with skipper Scott Pendlebury and midfield coach Scott Burns to fine-tune his game and is continually looking at ways he can impact matches, whether that be in the midfield or up forward.
The youngster, who will turn 21 in March next year, wants to be a great player as quickly as he can. Yet, if he learnt anything out of 2016, it was to be patient and not rush into things.
"I do something good and then I go missing for a bit, so that's been a bit frustrating," De Goey said.
"I'm never going to be solely a midfielder so that's the thing I need to work on. I need to have the ability to play both forward and in the midfield and I've got to know both roles really well."
