LATE 2018 into early 2019. The game's standout player was Dusty Martin. Paddy Dangerfield was still at the peak of his powers, Nat Fyfe was poised to win a second Brownlow.

A then-22-year-old, with an extraordinary burst of form which took in the closing home-and-away games and all four weeks of the 2018 finals series as well as the opening six matches of 2019, threatened to join those names in football's most elite group.

Jordan De Goey booted 19 goals in six matches leading into September 2018, then kicked 12 goals in the finals (two in a qualifying final, three in a semi, four in a preliminary and three in the Grand Final). His goal sequence went 2-5-3-1-3-2 at the beginning of the next year. He had at least entered every conversation that focused on the game's very best players.

It may be too harsh to say De Goey has wasted the ensuing four years of his football life, for his back half of 2021 was very good. But he certainly failed to capitalise on the extraordinary advances he had made, with off-field matters muddying his progress and standing.

Until the past fortnight. Out of nowhere, he's back in those conversations, dominating finals, kicking big goals at the most critical moments, giving Collingwood massive reason to have confidence of winning a premiership.

Against Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday night in a semi-final, De Goey, depending on how one chooses to determine votes in a game of footy, was surely either best on ground or second best to Jack Crisp. Twenty four disposals, match highs for score assists (12), inside 50s (eight) and clearances (six), and a classy goal.

The previous week, a six-point qualifying-final loss to Geelong, saw De Goey amass 26 disposals, nine tackles, eight clearances and two goals in the final quarter, which only the game's very best would have the composure, class and ability to kick.

Those two final-quarter goals in that match were at the Punt Rd end of football's most famous stadium. They were every bit as brilliant as the three he kicked in the 2018 Grand Final loss by five points to West Coast. Remember those? The first quarter one when he was hemmed in on the boundary line at the Punt Rd end and yet found a way to find a centimetre of space before curling a goal which was part of the blistering opening to the game which saw his team lead by 29 points. And the two long bombs from outside 50 at the City end, one in the second quarter and one in the last?

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Sustaining excellence has always been a battle for De Goey. Headline-generating dramas overseas in the most recent off-season and again in the mid-season bye period seriously set him back. Other very serious off-field issues have also curtailed his trajectory.

So troubled and troubling had De Goey's off-field ways become that his career as a Collingwood player beyond 2022 seemed over. The Magpies actually pulled their offer.

And yet while there may be a missing four years of progress on the De Goey CV, at 26, on the back of the past fortnight of finals excellence, he is back to where he was in 2018. Among the most dangerous of all AFL players in a finals series. And adding very big dollars by the game to his next contract.