COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley remains confident of keeping in-demand young gun Jordan De Goey at the club, but is philosophical about him potentially leaving.
The Pies have stuck by De Goey through various misdemeanours, including lying to the club on the eve of last season about a broken right hand suffered in a bar fight, saying he was injured while playing with his dog, and he was indefinitely suspended in February this season after being caught drink driving.
Collingwood has reaped the rewards since it welcomed the 22-year-old back into the fold in round four, as De Goey has been in brilliant form.
However, he is out of contract at season's end, and not long after his manager Ben Niall forecast a potential "godfather" offer, reports emerged North Melbourne has thrown a five-year, $5 million deal De Goey's way.
Buckley appeared unfazed about De Goey's future when he spoke to reporters at Melbourne airport on Friday ahead of the Magpies' meeting with Gold Coast on Saturday night.
"I'm sure that Jordy will make the right decision for him, and whatever the right decision for him is, it's actually the right decision for the club, either way. Because if you don't want to be here, that's fine. If you do want to be here, then that's good too," Buckley said.
The way Collingwood handled De Goey's indiscretion earlier in the year could impact his decision.
"Jordy's a big boy. He's handling it (speculation) pretty well. He'll work out and go through what he needs to go through and in due course he'll make a decision," Buckley said.
"The other side of it is the football club. We probably put Jordy in a position where we weren't necessarily committed to him at the early stages of this year, given he needed to jump through a few hoops for us to be prepared to commit to him.
"He's definitely accepted that challenge and handled it really well."
Buckley remains optimistic.
"I don't walk around anticipating the worst-case scenario. Relatively confident that the environment is good for him and somewhere that he wants to be," Buckley said.
Big-bodied onballer Brayden Sier will debut against Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night, a replacement for the hamstrung Adam Treloar.
Fixing up their foot skills will be a focus for the Pies.
"Our ball use was woeful (against Carlton last week). We kicked the ball back to the opposition more than we have in any game, statistically, this year, and we just didn't defend in the manner that we would have liked to consistently enough," Buckley said.
Travis Varcoe will return from a hamstring injury in the VFL on Sunday, while Darcy Moore and Jamie Elliott, who are both dealing with the same complaint, aren't much further away.
"Both Moore and Elliott just haven't had a lot of training, so they just need to make sure they're over-ready before we get them back," Buckley said.
