The Magpies have officially backed Nathan Buckley in for another two seasons, and it doesn’t seem like this will be too unpopular a decision when viewed by media and the Collingwood faithful alike, following only two losses in Collingwood’s last seven starts.
Talkback radio in recent weeks has been flooded with common themes: “the boys are playing for Buckley”, “the players are buying in”, or “the effort is there”.
There seemed a perception he had done enough to secure an extension weeks before the decision was officially made.
It would be interesting to see whether these same people would have defined a 9-1-12 scoreline for Collingwood as success at the beginning of the year.
Buckley may yet prove he can coach, but would anyone else have enjoyed so many chances? After four years of missing finals, have Pies supporters just learnt to be satisfied with mediocrity?
Extracting effort from a playing group is a minimum requirement for a coach. All year the Pies have fought through games, losing only one by over 30 points.
Eddie McGuire recently said, “The only time that you sack a coach is if you’ve lost the players completely or there is something untoward that needs to be addressed.”
After a rocky start, it’s clear that he has the buy in of this current list. Tick for Buckley.
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But at what point does it become reasonable to expect effort to translate to wins? Many fallen coaches can boast an ability to extract effort from their group. That doesn’t mean you are getting the best out of them.
It’s also the job of a coach to nurture talent to enhance the natural growth of a group. Collingwood has been to five drafts since Buckley took over, including seven first round picks (four in the top 10). Yet from last year’s best and fairest top ten, only Brodie Grundy and Josh Smith were drafted by Buckley – and Smith was a mature-age rookie.
Of the rest, Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Jarryd Blair were all established by the time Buckley arrived, while Adam Treloar, Levi Greenwood, Taylor Adams, Jeremy Howe and Jack Crisp were traded in.
The impact of trading to build a list is that you always pay a premium on the trade table and in the salary cap, a model best suited for teams that already have a core group of homegrown stars they can complement. Bringing in so many mature players suggests issues with recruitment, development and relationship building.
In attack this year, Collingwood found themselves in too many situations where they led contested possessions, clearances, and inside 50s, yet lost the game.
This was attributed to poor kicking for goal, poor kicking inside 50, slow ball movement by ‘crabbing sideways’, and a lack of cohesion within the team generally. It’s reasonable to expect that once these issues are identified, a coach must be able to address them. Yet there was no evidence of improvement until the burden of expectation was removed in the final rounds.
Implementing a defensive game style that suits the list at your disposal and is also competitive should be key to a coach’s survival. In Round 3, 2016, Pies fans watched in horror as St Kilda broke through a frail defensive press to walk in goal after goal. In Round 19 this year, Pies fans watched in horror as Adelaide broke through the same frail defensive press to reel in a 50-point deficit.
Collingwood cannot stop teams moving the ball, and they get beaten easily by sides that can play keepings off (they have lost ten of their past 11 against Hawthorn) or move the ball quickly (two of their poorer losses this year came to faced paced Bombers).
Buckley has failed to correct it, and opposition sides continue to exploit it.
The club will point to off-field instability and other mistakes within the football department that have so far cost Buckley a clean run at proving himself. Injuries to key and developing players must also be taken into consideration. And as an ambassador and media presenter, he is second to none.
But unfortunately for Buckley, the primary ambition of football clubs is chasing premierships. Collingwood has drifted further away from that ambition every year since he arrived.
Supporters of his reappointment would struggle to cite another example of so many people being so content with this level of long-term performance.
Gungadin
Guest
The first game in 2018 will reveal all. I hope I dont have to watch another slow motion train wreck.
Bill
Guest
Agree absolutely.
Pieman
Guest
Rival ticket needed at collingwood....spill the heirarchy ... need a new direction.
Peter the Scribe
Guest
the same Mark Robinson who made up the numbers on the Collingwood drug scandal story last year that derailed our season?...Try reading the Patrick Smith article on the Buckley decision Pieman if you want facts and truth.
Peter the Scribe
Guest
The sad thing is Tiny Tiger thinks his divisive campaign to split the Pies will do anything whatsoever....we have 75,000 Tiny...good luck with that.
dontknowmuchaboutfootball
Guest
someone who was pretty happy to see Mayne accept an offer from Collingwood. He was great in 2012/13, but his accuracy took a real dive after that.
Carltonian
Guest
Collingwood made a great decision. Given enough seasons, Buckley will eventually get the team to head towards the finals again. The Magpie supporters need to become more patient. There are 17 other clubs out there all trying to win. Collingwood is clearly gone doggo an lulling all the opposition clubs into a false sense of security when they will strike out of nowhere. Interesting, but clever strategy Eddie and Co.
Pete
Guest
The answer to your question is "YES"
Lachie Abbott
Roar Pro
Collingwood's inability to 'integrate' Chris Mayne does have a bit to do with Chris in my opinion. Clearly, if he cannot be selected over Josh Daicos (who to be fair has potential), his performance doesn't warrant him playing, regardless of his fit into Collingwood's play style/forward structure. As I'm sure you know, Collingwood shouldn't change its structure to integrate Chris Mayne, who I believe has a skillset which is somewhat redundant nowdays compared to a few years ago in the Fremantle/Sydney/2010 Collingwood pressing games. In this aspect, it is definitely not Mayne's fault, rather poor Collingwood recruitment. Other options with more influence included guys like Jack Steele, who seemed to be the barometer for the Saint this year. However, I do believe the angst you described is justified, given how it removes Collingwood from attaining many high quality free agents for the next THREE years.
Pieman
Guest
I think the media is very afraid of Mr Ed, but i think plenty of supporters wish they had 5 min of question time with ed and nathan....2 guys i like listening too are Mark Robinson And Matt Lloyd who seem fearless in expressing there opinion on this situation. They claim now they want to be transparent....well reveal the findings and also how many paid members there are excluding freebies and why take so long to reveal member numbers. It smacks of a dictatorship its everyones club so everyone has the right to know these things ...how long will it take to reveal next years members numbers without inflating numbers by freebies and the like. Yes we are headed to serious mediocrity because not much will change. 2 more years for bucks equals 2 years of going backwards and extra years from being a real threat for the flag.
FreoKnight
Guest
Actually, I'm a self appointed expert on the game. How about you?
dontknowmuchaboutfootball
Guest
Chris Mayne was a Free Agent. Collingwood didn't give a second round pick for him. The AFL gave a second round pick to Freo as compensation for losing Mayne to free agency.
FreoKnight
Guest
Chet, Mayne was never going to "deliver" a sugar hit. Maybe there was a mismatch with the fans expectations with what he could/was going to deliver. He was only ever going to give a 25 to 35 goal return for a 22 game season. Something he was never give a chance to do at Collingwood. The failure to deliver wasn't with Chris Mayne, and you are probably not going to like me saying this, but the failure to deliver was with Collingwood. And talking about the on going fall out of this, probably the biggest loss is going to be when Collingwood try to get a Shaun Burgoyne type (about 27 when picked up by Hawthorn in 2009) or a Brian Lake (about 30 when picked up by Hawthoen in 2012) and even a Josh Gibson type (about 25 when picked up by Hawthorn in 2009) the players are going to wonder if Collingwood is the right club to go too. Particularly when they look at the reaction Chris Mayne got through no fault of his own.
Birdman
Guest
there's a new kool-aid cult in town
Jarrod H
Roar Rookie
He said publicly that he would step down if he didn't get the team to the finals this year. And yet here we are with no finals and Buckley accepting a two year extension. On what planet is that integrity?
Chet
Guest
I also think Mayne was part of a trading period that was trying to get a sugar hit to get in the finals immediately to take pressure off the club and Buckley. When Mayne didn't deliver that sugar hit straight away he got dumped in the VFL. Totally agree on losing the 2nd rounder - what a waste all round...
Chet
Guest
Perhaps mattyb that's because the majority of non-collingwood people are seeing this rationally and not emotionally. Similar to how everyone else was baffled why Essendon kept Hird on board when the drug scandal hit. There are different rules for favourite sons eh? But not in my book. I'm a pies fan who thinks its a silly decision...
FreoKnight
Guest
With respect, I don't think Collingwood have really tried to integrate Chris Mayne into the Collingwood team. 3 AFL games and some VFL games doesn't really cut it. Chris Mayne could have been a decent player for Collingwood (picking up a goal or maybe sometimes two a game) over the next two /maybe three years if that effort to integrate him was made in 2016. But Collingwood decided not to put this effort in for some reason. This is nothing to do with Chris Mayne. Also people keep banging on about how much Collingwood are paying him. Again I would respectively suggest that the amount doesn't come close to justifying the angst it has generated but what I think has hurt Collingwood much more than his salary is the loss of a second round draft pick in 2016. A second round draft pick, done well, can provide a good player for many years to come. But again this is nothing to do with Chris Mayne and is probably more to do with the AFL trading system where second round draft picks appear to be given away too freely for players approaching the end of their careers.
Mattyb
Guest
That's all fair enough FreoKnight. I guess the original plan didn't go like Collingwood planned as they would have been expecting Malthouse to mentor for a while. Obviously the big hole in that plan is in hindsight,it's hard to imagine why anyone would think Malthouse would ever go through with the plan.
FreoKnight
Guest
mattyb, For myself, I think Nathan Buckley should move on for the good of Nathan Buckley. His best chance of being a successful AFL coach in the future is go and get some assistant coaching experience at another club. And if he is to do this he needs to do this soon because the option of him getting an assistant coaching role at another club is starting to close. And another two years at Collingwood will probably see this option disappear completely for him. To my way of thinking Nathan clearly didn't have the required experience and background when he was handed the senior coaching job back in 2012. This is not Nathan's failure, it is a failure of those that appointed him. Perhaps a better way to think about it is that Nathan was setup to fail. I think Nathan needed to do some time as an assistant at another AFL club preferrably a club outside Victoria. I see the appointment of a mentor for Nathan is a part admission of this and it is probably as much of an admission that Eddie is going to give. Will this Mentor be enough to fill this gap in Nathan experience and background. I guess we are going to find out.