Wreck It Ralph: The six ways Nathan Buckley can shore up his future at Collingwood

The pressure is mounting on Nathan Buckley after a horror loss to GWS but would removing him as coach actually improve Collingwood’s premiership chances?

Nathan Buckley is under pressure after a shocking loss to GWS. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Nathan Buckley peeks around the corner like a giddy schoolboy about to pull off the ultimate prank.

It is Saturday October 3, 2020, and the Collingwood coach has been part of an AFL coaching masterclass.

He thumps the lid of a black plastic bin up and down as his players round the corner into the Perth Stadium changerooms after a one-point elimination final victory over West Coast.

Cue pandemonium.

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His first hug is for captain Scott Pendlebury and then he high-fives Darcy Cameron and Jordan De Goey.

Cameron and Brodie Grundy have dulled Nic Naitanui’s influence, Brayden Maynard has held firm in an epic battle with Liam Ryan and Buckley is on top of the coaching world.

Five AFL contests later, Nathan Buckley is back at Groundhog Day.

His coaching future up for grabs, the same old questions have emerged about that elusive premiership 489 games into his career as a player and coach.

Nathan Buckley hopes his current Magpies playing group can deliver him that elusive premiership. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

When you lose the cream of your list with a calamitous explanation, endure a disastrous review of your club’s systematic racism that claims the president and fall to a 1-3 start, that is just fair criticism.

But what Collingwood will decide upon this year isn’t whether Buckley did enough to defend Heritier Lumumba, or smoothed Adam Treloar’s path out of the club.

It is whether he is the right man to win Collingwood’s next premiership.

And on all available evidence, it’s hard to see that sacking Buckley at the peak of his powers and installing a first-time coach would improve the club’s premiership hopes.

Despite all the missteps of the summer.

Those close to Ross Lyon say he has made the decision not to coach an AFL club again.

He has moved on with that aspect of his life and is happy to balance media commitments – Triple M and Channel 9 – with his role in commercial real estate at the Wizel Property Group.

Mark Williams should be a senior coaching contender but clubs seem scared of the full provocative, antagonistic, brilliant package despite his exceptional coaching fundamentals.

So, is Buckley a better choice than the next-best assistant coach such as Scott Burns or Adem Yze or Adam Kingsley?

And more to the point, if Buckley had been handed a three-year extension in February 2019 instead of two years, would he be feeling this heat as a coach contracted to 2022?

It is the ludicrous nature of the news cycle that Buckley is judged simply because he is uncontracted and because Dom Sheed’s kick flew like an arrow and not like a sliced three-iron which drifted a metre left.

If Sheed had missed that shot we would regard Buckley more like Chris Scott or Adam Simpson, as premiership coaches who like him have failed to get it done through circumstance and bad luck since their flag triumph.

Even if Sheed had kicked truly and Shane Mumford hadn’t held up the dam wall in the dying moments of the 2019 preliminary final wouldn’t we consider Buckley’s twin Grand Final appearances as worthy enough of a 2021 extension?

The point is this: sacking a coach with finals victories in his past three campaigns is fraught with danger when there isn’t a star waiting in the wings to replace him.

Buckley had a rolled-gold stinker on Saturday night.

Is Buckley still the man to coach Collingwood? Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

A nightmarish coaching performance that might have been one of the worst in recent years.

The kind of everything-that-can-go-wrong performance that in isolation would make you think he has no fuel left in the tank.

His seven-million-dollar ruckman was beaten by a rookie on maybe $100,000 plus match payments.

He bungled the Toby Greene match-up, he couldn’t inspire spark in a team with only Jamie Elliott out of its best, he picked an old and slow line-up that performed accordingly.

But what senior coaches do after those kinds of days – such as Brett Ratten and Damien Hardwick before him in Round 3 – is roll up their sleeves and fix those issues.

So when Collingwood CEO Mark Anderson and new football boss Graham Wright make their decision on Buckley’s future, here is how he can shore up his job.

1. Get more bang for Brodie’s bucks

If Brodie Grundy is only a midfielder, he’s a $500,000 midfielder at best.

So Bucks needs to help him earn the extra $3.5 million of his salary over seven years.

He needs a point of difference – such as Shane Mumford’s aggression, Tim English’s goalkicking, Max Gawn’s contested marking or Nic Naitanui’s contested tap work – other than his 18 possessions a week.

He has six seasons and 18 games to refine his game from very, very good to great, because he’s certainly on great money.

Darcy Moore is a gun defender, but could he be deployed inside forward 50 to the same effect? Picture: Michael Klein

2. Try Moore up forward

At least scratch the itch on an experiment with Darcy Moore forward at some stage for a full two games.

The Pies haven’t had a spearhead since Travis Cloke, and the one who they might have only plays back.

Maybe not this week given the Eagles’ tall timber, but a player who kicked 24.14 in his second season and 25.19 in his third has kicked three goals in the 46 games since.

3. Give Kelly a decent crack

Play Will Kelly at every opportunity to see if he can be the solution in the Brody Mihocek-Mason Cox forward line.

Their attack has gone from fifth in 2018, to seventh in 2019, to 13th in 2020 and 16th after a month this year.

In that Eagles elimination final win, Cox kicked three goals in as many minutes and Mihocek was the difference late, and we know Cox performed in the 2018 Grand Final and prelim.

The Pies love Kelly, coming back from a collarbone injury, so it’s not a question of intent, it’s about availability.

But don’t be afraid to trade Cox and consider offers for Mihocek if by year’s end you don’t think they are the forward line for the next flag.

Jordan De Goey needs to shed some weight to become more mobile. Picture: Michael Klein

4. De Goey must slim down

Get Jordan De Goey to follow Jake Stringer’s diet.

De Goey is taking superstar money and has superstar wraps, but by no means is he in superstar shape.

His season has been fine so far – seven goals, four of them against Carlton – but it’s not elite.

Champion Data ranks him as average, which is about right.

If Stringer can strip 7kg and look lean and cut and hungry and then play accordingly, is De Goey doing absolutely everything in his power to be an AFL superstar?

So far this year he has just two AFLCA Coaches Award votes.

5. Be straight with supporters

Stop talking gibberish to the members.

Collingwood fans loved Nathan Buckley’s ability to navigate the turbulent waters of the coaching transition, but they called bulldust over the explanation of the trade bungle.

They knew the Pies were tinkling down their back and telling them it was raining over that shemozzle and then again in response to the “Do Better” report.

Buckley might have suggested to Adam Treloar he had lost the senior players and certainly suggested he had taken his exit personally, while Tom Phillips didn’t.

Get back to telling them the truth, and selling the mini-rebuild taking place with honesty and transparency.

Owning the need to change after the GWS loss was an excellent start.

Buckley needs to give more games to young players, like Oliver Henry. Picture: Michael Klein

6. Back in the kids

Play a kid over an honest toiler at every chance if it’s a lineball call. It’s already started. Ollie Henry played Round 1 for four possessions and has had a freshen-up in the VFL.

But neither Josh Thomas (42 possessions, two goals in four games) nor Levi Greenwood (six possessions v the Giants) are in the club’s next premiership side.

Surely? That those two were in the Magpies best side – in a team that had one key injury (Elliott) – spoke of a lack of depth.

So throw in Caleb Poulter and Finn Macrae this week, and Reef McInnes, Will Kelly, Mark Keane and Isaac Chugg as soon as they are ready.

It might not help the Pies make finals this year, but it will help them up for the club’s next premiership tilt.

Nathan Buckley might end up slotting straight into the Channel 7 commentary chair next year and take up some of the salary cap cleared by Bruce McAvaney.

But despite his and Collingwood’s weaknesses – and don’t we all have them – he remains the best option for the Pies.

It might take a season of recalibration – missing finals, reshaping the salary cap, tweaking the game plan.

Yet, a summer of pain shouldn’t overshadow the growth he has made in a decade as Collingwood coach and what he can still achieve in the near future.

Originally published as Wreck It Ralph: The six ways Nathan Buckley can shore up his future at Collingwood