Nathan Buckley has responded to a scathing attack on Twitter from ex-Collingwood defender Héritier Lumumba who accused his former Magpies coach of being “actively aware” of racial issues at the club, making “insinuations about my mental health” and being “deliberately misleading”.
Lumumba has reacted by saying he doesn’t take orders from Buckley as the public slanging match gets even uglier.
He posted a thread on Twitter with links to vision of Buckley smirking at a 2017 press conference when asked about Lumumba allegedly being called “Chimp” at Collingwood as well as an audio recording of a conversation he had with the coach.
Buckley did not know he was being recorded and in the conversation he accuses Lumumba of throwing president Eddie McGuire “under the bus” after speaking out about his infamous racist “King Kong” comments about Swans star Adam Goodes.
The coach says he’s gone “rogue” from the club and “on his own crusades” in the audio.
At the beginning of the Twitter thread, Lumumba calls on Buckley to come clean about what he knew about the Magpies’ culture of racism.
“I’ve given Nathan Buckley many years to grow and hopefully tell the truth. Unfortunately, he has used his platform and considerable profile to discredit me, including making insinuations about my mental health and being deliberately misleading about the past.
“My claims about Buckley have always been consistent: That he was actively aware of serious cultural problems at Collingwood, and that he was instrumental in punishing me and pushing me out of the Club when I spoke up about these issues at all levels of CFC.”
Buckley responded by asking Lumumba to put out the entire recording of their conversation to “provide context”.
“Heritier, I offer you the opportunity to put a full and uncut version of our conversations on public record so as to provide context to our conversations and the support that was provided to you above and beyond that which could be reasonably expected in the circumstances.”
Lumumba told ABC News Breakfast on Wednesday morning that he would not be heeding Buckley’s request.
“This isn’t a football match – I don’t take orders from Nathan Buckley and I haven’t done that for a long time,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
“I will share my truth as I see fit.”
Further down in the thread, Lumumba posts a link to a press conference which shows Buckley smirking as he answers questions about the player’s claims.
“The highest profile instance of Buckley undermining me was a 2017 press conference where he denied any knowledge of the racist nickname ‘chimp’ which I was subjected to at the Club. He also suggested I was mentally unstable,” he wrote.
Lumumba, whose mother is Brazilian and his father is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, played 199 games for Collingwood from 2005-14 before finishing his career with 24 matches across two seasons with Melbourne.
The 35-year-old finished his social media missive by saying he was again speaking out because he wants Collingwood to embrace the recommendations of the Do Better report from 2020 “in the spirit of genuine reconciliation”.
“Many people have asked what I want. For the past 15 months, I’ve been in dialogue with CFC, open to finding a way forward. I did this in good faith despite the Club’s history because I believed in the possibility of a process of healing and improvement.
“The process was led by the same legal team that had attempted to suppress the release of the Do Better Report. I found the conduct of CFC to be misleading and manipulative, concerned with damage control rather than anything in the spirit of genuine reconciliation.
“CFC’s lawyers’ disgraceful behaviour and disrespect towards independent First Nations experts in a meeting – which led to several heated exchanges between them – led to the final breakdown of all dialogue.
“Buckley can talk all he likes about ‘multiple truths.’ I’ve always presented facts. Everything I’ve said to date is accurate because it’s based on the multitude of recordings I have accumulated over the past 10 years to protect myself, my reputation, and my legal interests.
“The AFL and CFC’s sponsors cannot simply keep their heads in the sand. When clubs are incapable of dealing with serious systemic and cultural issues, organisations that fund them and profit from them must also bear responsibility.”
Buckley also responded on Twitter to the second-last post with: “And facts??? You asked to be removed from the leadership group and…. You asked to be traded from the club. The club simply facilitated your requests.”
Earlier in the week, Lumumba alleged in a News Corp report that an unidentified assistant coach used a pornographic image during a team meeting when Buckley was in charge.
He also claimed ex-chief executive Gary Pert made sexually inappropriate comments in front of players’ partners.
Lumumba recently announced he and fellow former Collingwood stars Leon Davis and Andrew Krakouer had cut ties with the club in belief “nothing has changed”.
Buckley, who exited Collingwood in mid-2021 and now works in the media, responded to Lumumba’s claims earlier in the week on SEN Radio.
“The club have, from my understanding tried to work with Heritier and other Indigenous players, who have been part of systemic racism situations over the course of the club’s history,” he said.
“I am happy to engage with the club however they wish, but Heritier hasn’t been satisfied with that and that’s why we are where we’re at
“There are other versions of the truth that are a long way away from the way he perceives it.
“It seems that Heritier doesn’t really want to move forward unless, I don’t know, he needs heads to roll.”
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