Nathan Buckley blames Jordan De Goey injury for mobile phone breach as Collingwood wait for punishment

Kieran Francis

Nathan Buckley blames Jordan De Goey injury for mobile phone breach as Collingwood wait for punishment image

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has blamed the concussion suffered by Jordan De Goey for the forward's mobile phone breach during Friday night's loss to West Coast.

After going off injured with the head knock during the second quarter, De Goey was seen on the television broadcast grabbing his and teammate Jeremy Howe's mobile phones from a box in the Optus Stadium change rooms.

The star forward was then seen handing Howe's phone to the Magpie defender - who had also been ruled out of the game after sustaining a hamstring injury.

The AFL has strict rules regarding mobile phone usage during matches surrounding the integrity of live betting markets and Collingwood has been served a 'please explain' notice before any sanction is decided from the governing body.

Every AFL has 10 staff members that are permitted to use mobile phones, with no players among them, and the players' devices are supposed to be locked away until after the game is complete.

It is understood that De Goey and Howe used their devices to alert family and friends that they were okay after both being ruled out of the game.

Speaking on Fox Footy's AFL 360, Buckley believed De Goey wasn't thinking straight after being ruled out for the game following his head knock.

"The bloke we're talking about who grabbed the phones had just been omitted from the game for concussion," Buckley said.

"We're understaffed at the moment after COVID [job losses] so most of our [staff] were hands on deck.

"We had a couple of injured players and the bloke that grabbed the phones wasn't deemed well enough to continue playing a game of footy due to a knock to the head."

Collingwood are currently in 16th position on the AFL ladder with a 1-4 win-loss ledger to start the season.

The Magpies' only win of the campaign came against Carlton in round two, with the club suffering losses to Western Bulldogs, Brisbane, GWS and West Coast.

Both De Goey and Howe will miss this weekend's crunch ANZAC Day clash against Essendon at the MCG on Sunday - with the Bombers also sitting with a 1-4 record.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.