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Dear Nathan and Eddie,
It seems I got it quite wrong and I owe you both an apology…
I said some things about you both last year that were pretty harsh.
However, I’m not apologising because they were harsh, I’m apologising because they were wrong.
Dead wrong.
I lost faith.
I called the reappointment of Nathan another example of our great club’s “misguided loyalty to past greats.”
While there was a lot of historical evidence to back that comment up, the fact that Collingwood will make the finals this year sort of torpedoes those comparisons. While historically there were some examples of club great coaches getting sides to the finals, I was certain that Buckley would not ever achieve it again.
Certainly not with a team and strategy of his own creation like he has this year.
If they beat Fremantle in the West this weekend they will actually make the top four for the first time since 2012. If the weakened West Coast Eagles lose to the resurgent Brisbane Lions at the Gabba – something that hasn’t happened since 2012 – then the Magpies will finish second.
But regardless of the results in the final round, Collingwood Football Club will be playing finals in 2018 and they won’t just be making up the numbers.
Let me make something perfectly clear: I am, and have always been a devoted Collingwood supporter. I have maintained my membership throughout the recent downturn in form. I always wanted Buckley to succeed as our coach.
However, the experience from 2012 until the end of the 2017 season saw me lose faith in him. I thought it should have been obvious to all that he’d been given more than a fair go and we should be looking for another way forward.
I just didn’t believe Nathan was a good enough coach.
In fact I said Buckley had, “the apparent strategic and tactical abilities of a banana” and that, “Reappointing Buckley [was] an insult to the members of the club.”
While I truly wish I had stopped there, I didn’t.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
“Not only do the boys in black and white have no working game plan, their skills have gone backwards. Their kicking, marking and hand passing is better suited to the VFL.”
Clearly the team’s 14 wins this season have involved more than just guts and determination. While the constant stream of injuries has seen lots of depth and skill come to the fore, it has been clear that there is a game plan in force at all points – and a very good one.
Further, the skills across the entire list have been top class.
There is no question that this is Buckley’s work. And that I was wrong.
I also had a go at the recruitment strategy put in place by Derek Hine and Geoff Walsh, labelling it bizarre.
“It’s time for Walsh and Hine to go if they think this trade strategy is anything but dreadful.”
There is no doubt that a huge part of the Pies’ success in 2018 has rested on the amazing depth in the list that Hine and Walsh have created, and that I was wrong. Further, Lynden Dunn has turned out to be an inspired piece of recruitment and I also proffer my sincere apologies to him.
I was also wrong about this:
“If history is a guide, the only way Collingwood’s present fortunes will change is when we win another wooden spoon. That’s the only way we ever change: when we hit rock bottom.”
It is clear that Collingwood’s fortunes have changed because those in charge had the foresight and intestinal fortitude to stay the course, in spite of the outrage expressed by the likes of me.
As Jay Croucher explains so brilliantly in his article on the reasons behind Collingwood’s rise back to relevance, Eddie and the board were dead right to stand by Buckley, just like the leadership at the Richmond Tigers were when standing by Damian Hardwick and the Cats board was when standing by Bomber Thompson.
And I was dead wrong to say that they shouldn’t stand by Buckley.
So, Nathan, Eddie, please accept this as a full retraction and apology. And thanks for having the guts to back yourselves and stay the course.
Floreat Pica.