‘That’s atrocious’: Wayne Carey’s scathing Nathan Buckley slap

Wayne Carey has taken a staggering swipe at footy legend Nathan Buckley over video footage that has rocked the AFL.

Wayne Carey and Nathan Buckley.

Wayne Carey has taken a swipe at Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley as the explosive fall-out to West Coast’s loss to Essendon continues to rage.

The Eagles’ decision not to put an extra defender behind the ball in the dying stages of the match has been criticised across the footy world with suggestions by some that the last-minute tactics amounted to a form of “tanking”.

The club is in line to snare the prized No. 1 draft pick and is sitting on the bottom of the ladder.

The Eagles mounted a huge comeback against the Bombers on Saturday to give them a sniff of their third win of the season — and even took the lead with a couple minutes to go.

But with a minute remaining, Essendon surged the ball out of the centre and Kyle Langford ran into an open goal for his major to put the Bombers in front. They held on to win 73-72.

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Carey on Monday questioned West Coast’s “willingness” to win as judged by the tactical decision to keep players at the stoppage rather than having an extra defender.

Wayne Carey and Nathan Buckley.

Buckley later clarified that he had spoken with Eagles coach Adam Simpson on Monday and used previously unseen footage from a camera behind the goals to reveal where the former North Melbourne premiership player went wrong with his tactics.

Buckley’s expert analysis included an admission from Simpson that the team hadn’t practised close game scenarios.

Despite this Carey has hit out at Buckley and Kane Cornes over their comments about the Eagles’ loss. Simpson and Carey are former teammates.

“Bucks and Cornes suggesting Simmo deliberately lost is atrocious,” Carey posted on Twitter on Tuesday night.

“Bucks should understand?? Kane?? Just for shock factor!! YES... industry is a joke and both should know better.”

Victory would have seen West Coast leapfrog North Melbourne on the ladder after they defeated the Kangaroos the previous week.

Nathan Buckley’s footage showed the Eagles one-on-one in defence. Photo: Fox Sports.

Kane Cornes called out West Coast for being man on man. Photo: Twitter via Channel 9, Fox Footy.

The two struggling sides are in a race to snare highly touted youngster Harley Reid, who is widely tipped to by this year’s No. 1 pick.

Cornes on Monday night said “every team in the competition” would have put an extra defender behind the ball in the final minutes before the Bombers took the lead again.

Cornes also praised Buckley for his analysis of the situation when speaking on Channel 9’s Footy Classified — and showed footage of Essendon’s final goal where the Eagles were caught one-on-one with Essendon players in their defensive 50m arc.

Simpson after the match stood by his late tactical moves.

“We went to the right things, in those situations, you often pre-empt before it happens,” Simpson said.

“We had all those discussions. If we hit the front what should we do? If we lose the lead what should we do? So we did all those moves and we could have done some different things really late, maybe put an extra behind the play – they would’ve equalised it anyway.

“We could’ve manipulated a few different things, but I don’t think we’ll review the last play of the day as much as that cost us the game.

“We’ll look at more how we got back into the game and our younger players got to experience almost a really good victory but they’ll take a lot from it.”

Buckley said he couldn’t question the effort Eagles players showed in mounting their stunning comeback.

“I called Adam Simpson today and he told me they haven’t done a whole lot (of close-game training). He’s saying there (after Maric’s goal) ‘no plus-one’, so he’s happy to play man-on-man,” Buckley said.

West Coast Eagles coach Adam Simpson. (Photo by Graham Denholm/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“The wingers are out wide on the Essendon wingers. If you wanted a plus-one, it would’ve been (Oscar) Allen or (Jack) Darling or Maric himself would’ve found themselves back there.

“West Coast had their hands on that (ball in congestion). They flooded it with half-forwards, which was their style of trying to control this contest by flooding the contest. Didn’t win it, it went over the top, Jayden Hunt – an experienced player – let his man goalside, (consequently Elliot) Yeo needs to press up and then there’s an over-the-top goal.”

“But Essendon, when the ball was there to be won, they were the ones that won the stoppages that counted and that’s what gave them the opportunity to win the game and West Coast lost it.

“When I spoke to Simmo … he said they hadn’t trained their scenario play – half a goal up or half a goal down. They haven’t been in that situation all year, they’ve just been trying to work to get their transition game right and get playing.

Originally published as ‘That’s atrocious’: Wayne Carey’s scathing Nathan Buckley slap