Nathan Buckley says fatigue finally caught up with Collingwood, skills still a major issue

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley says three matches in 12 days caught up with the Magpies while lamenting continued forward line struggles.

Nathan Buckley speaks to his players at three-quarter time. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

NATHAN Buckley says the critics would “have to be blind” not to acknowledge his players were tired after a disastrous loss to rivals Carlton.

The Pies’ third game in 12 days was a 23-point surrender to the Blues on the club’s 125th birthday. With Buckley coaching for his career, Collingwood is now 2-5 with Greater Western Sydney in Sydney to come.

Buckley said his side was “outbodied, outmuscled and out-grunted” by the rebuilding Blues, but pointed to fatigue as a factor after clashes against Essendon (April 25) and Geelong (April 30).

MATCH REPORT: RAIN, BLUES RUIN MAGPIES’ BIG DAY

BLUES TRIO: IRONY BITES MAGPIES IN ANNIVERSARY STINKER

The demanding schedule was deemed too much for new recruit Daniel Wells, who was a late withdrawal against the Blues.

“You’d have to be blind to the reality or ignorant of that if you thought it had no influence,” Buckley said.

“It does surprise us because we expect more than that, but logic would tell you that with a couple of short breaks in a row that ... and a lot of our decision making was around trying to think ‘OK, we’re going to need fresh legs as often as we can’.

Nathan Buckley marches out to the huddle at three-quarter time. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

“But we just looked like we’d lost a yard today, so how much impact that had I don’t know. We’re not going to take credit away from the opposition and they defended really well and were far harder than us at the contest, they wanted it more and executed their plan a lot better.

“But it goes into the mix; it’s a factor.”

THE SUNDAY HERALD SUN IS CELEBRATING COLLINGWOOD’S 125TH ANNIVERSARY: DON’T MISS THIS SPECIAL EDITION AND FOUR-PART PODCAST SERIES WITH GREATS MAXWELL, SHAW, ROCCA AND MALTHOUSE

However, Collingwood yet again butchered the ball inside 50m and overused handball in wet conditions to leave its forward line floundering.

The Magpies have this season goaled from only 19.1 per cent of forward 50m entries - on track for the worst season on record.

They rank fourth for inside 50m entries, yet 17th for goals scored.

Carlton defenders took 13 marks from Collingwood kicks inside 50m in what Buckley said was a “system issue”.

Collingwood players walk off the MCG after losing to Carlton.

“It’s partially the decision, it’s partially the execution and it’s partially the contest. It was costly for us today,” Buckley said.

“Our ability to execute going forward and to keep our shape wasn’t great today. Credit to Carlton, they defended pretty well and we didn’t seem to have the execution or the legs to move the ball in the manner we wanted.

“We knew that it was going to be a dour game, that it was going to be a contested ball game and that’s where they were much better than us.

“Most of our games have been really tight. At the very least we grind it out, but we want to be better than that and we’ve shown we can play better than that. Today we were off.”

Originally published as Nathan Buckley says fatigue finally caught up with Collingwood, skills still a major issue