IT WORKED for Geelong great Steve Johnson and now Nathan Buckley hopes it works for Jordan De Goey.

That’s why the Collingwood coach called his fellow Norm Smith medallist recently.

Johnson in 2007 was arrested for being drunk in a public place, with the Cats coming down hard on the talented forward. They sent him to train with the VFL team and forced him to find employment away from the club, while also banning him from senior selection and consuming alcohol.

It worked. Johnson came straight back into the team, helped the Cats end a 44-year premiership drought and won the Norm Smith Medal.

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De Goey’s sanction was similar to Johnson’s after he was caught drink-driving last month — almost 12 months since he told the club he had broken his hand playing with his dog, before it later emerged he had actually done so in a bar fight.

After De Goey returned to the club on Monday following a month away, Buckley said he contacted Johnson to confirm if his suspension was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I personally rang Stevie J, actually. His was probably the closest situation I could think of,” Buckley said on SEN on Wednesday.

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Jordan De Goey training with Collingwood’s VFL team. Source: News Corp Australia

“I just asked him ‘I know the stories, I know the way that history has been written, but what was the most significant turning point for you? Was that a turning point? Was that a catalyst for a change in behaviour?’

“That conversation was really important for me for a bit of understanding. And it wasn’t far away from how it was reported.

“He said the most significant thing was the fact that his teammates were the ones that had taken the lead and that in fact it was a catalyst moment for him.

“He put a few things in place away from football that became part of his structure going forward for the rest of his career that really kept him on the straight and narrow for the most part and maximised his strengths without losing that passion and that 'laddish' charm that we’ve always seen from him and enjoyed from him.

“To make good decisions you’ve got to have the right information.”

Jordan De Goey is back at the Holden Centre. Source: Getty Images

Buckley said De Goey was welcomed back to the club on Monday after fulfilling all the requirements during his time away from the club.

“The leadership group were happy to invite him back into the program on Monday,” he said.

“There was a fair bit of rigour around what he had achieved at the Salvation Army, the manual labour he had done away from the club, the training intensity he had shown at the VFL and through the weights program and the remorse that was quite clear in his behaviour in the short term.”

While De Goey won’t face Hawthorn in the opening round this weekend due to a hamstring strain, he is available for selection when he recovers from that setback.