- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Nathan Buckley possesses all the qualities you’d want of an AFL coach, bar one – an ability to win.
He’s driven, determined and an outstanding student of the game. Further, he’s articulate, passionate and extremely loyal to his players and supporter base.
The Collingwood coach can usually explain all occurrences on a football field with clarity (Tom Mitchell performances aside), but unfortunately he can’t seem to change them.
Even allowing for his obvious smarts and apparent decency, Buckley possesses some of the same attributes as a politician.
No, he’s not a fan of banal lip service like Bill Shorten, nor does he need to pretend to be nice like Kevin Rudd did.
He’s not an unhinged try-hard like Tony Abbott, smarmy like Derryn Hinch or of questionable intelligence like Pauline Hanson.
Even in failure he’s more dignified than Donald Trump’s tiny hands. But, like the majority of politicians, and also his club President Eddie McGuire, a stoic resoluteness and undying self-belief might actually be his Achilles heel.
Also, though Buckley, McGuire and plenty of others in public office usually sound convincing and believable, more often than not their rhetoric simply doesn’t match the accompanying performances, that for which they are ultimately responsible.
(AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Collingwood might be the ‘biggest’ football club in Australia, but it’s not even close to being the best. Adjectives don’t always count for a lot in footy. Jamie Elliott might as well have the ‘coolest’ haircut in the AFL or Tomas Bugg the ‘best’ fist.
A lot of what comes out of the Holden Centre is like that which come out of Parliament House, words that don’t stack up to scrutiny.
Clint Eastwood’s character Dirty Harry said it best, ‘A man’s gotta know his limitations.’ Politicians usually don’t.
I hope Nathan Buckley does, as it would be a tragedy to see him go on next year and make a fool of himself. He should leave that to the truly deluded and those without self-awareness like Tony Abbott to do.
The evidence is in, Buckley can’t coach. Beyond Leigh Matthews and Malcolm Blight, great players rarely can. Buckley’s fellow Brownlow Medalists and favourite sons, James Hird and Michael Voss couldn’t either.
Nor could the wondrous Kevin Bartlett. Blight is the last Brownlow Medalist to win an AFL premiership as a coach, which is undoubtedly part of the reason he’s now an AFL Legend.
The task of coaching is historically best-suited to the dourly diligent, not the tremendously talented. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. The names Kevin Sheedy, Mick Malthouse and Alastair Clarkson alone take care of that argument.
Buckley’s had his chance. In six years he’s built his post-Malthouse side. Lesser names would be lucky to have got three.
Brett Ratten and Matthew Knights would have loved the opportunity Buckley’s had. Under his tutelage, Collingwood’s form has gone in the same direction as a Ross Lyon press conference – uncomfortably downhill.
Buckley knows that there’s no excuses in football. Although every coach says that, most then go on to proffer injuries, umpires and scheduling as just that, excuses. Buckley doesn’t and that’s a credit to him.
If anyone is to blame, it’s the Collingwood hierarchy, led by Eddie McGuire and his Peta Credlin-like blind devotion to Buckley.
As Paul Roos (a very good player to coach a premiership) highlighted on the weekend the list management and recruitment at Collingwood during Buckley’s reign has made little sense.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.