Collingwood v Gold Coast: Nathan Buckley’s coaching future under question
One of the game’s all-time greats has lashed Jordan De Goey’s form, saying the struggling Magpie is “a mile off” after his performance against Gold Coast.
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Collingwood premiership coach Leigh Matthews says the Pies are a bottom-four side despite the club outlining plans to recontract Nathan Buckley in the last third of the season.
New Pies football boss Graham Wright gave the strongest indication the Pies are keen to hand Buckley a new two-year deal this year before the 24-point loss to Gold Coast.
He said on Saturday Buckley’s extension “all tracks in the right direction”, but it remains to be seen whether a run of humbling losses could change the club’s direction.
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Matthews made clear Buckley’s greatest challenge was to define the positions of Jordan De Goey and Darcy Moore.
But according to Matthews, a Collingwood side that has a handful of key injuries might not be much good anyway.
“Collingwood are looking like a bottom-four team. They don’t look like they have any wow factor about them. Mihocek was outstanding but the rest of the ground, they look fairly pedestrian, so it looks like a long road ahead for them,” he told 3AW.
“This same group that played (Gold Coast) is much more capable than the standard they produced. So you have got to get the best out of your personnel before you start chucking the kids in.
“Jordan De Goey, we know he can play but at the moment he’s a mile off. We think Darcy Moore can be a really good player as a defender, but as a forward he just didn’t draw the ball. They have to decide about their positioning of these players to get the best out of them before wholesale chucking half a dozen out and bringing half a dozen in.”
The Pies take on winless North Melbourne next week before clashes against Sydney, Port Adelaide and Geelong.
Buckley is determined to go on and the club has plans to offer him a two-year deal.
Wright made clear on ABC Radio the club believed he was their coach for future years but said despite Buckley’s statement this week the club would wait.
“It is a good question from that perspective (why we will wait) but he was clear at the start and so were we that let’s wait until the back half of the year,” he said.
“He is really experienced, high quality coach, been successful, there are a lot of ticks.
“I have been a fan from the outside and the inside. I think it all tracks in the right direction but we are all clear we will make a decision when we have two thirds of the year under our belt.”
Collingwood averaged home crowds of 58,975 in 2019 as the Pies army voted with their feet in the year after a Grand Final.
The paltry attendance of 24,397 against Gold Coast has been used as evidence the loyal fan base lacked confidence in a quality performance.
But in 2019 as the Pies were one kick from a Grand Final the Round 20 clash against the Suns drew only 33,577 fans.
BUCKLEY: PIES WON’T FORCE COACH CALL
Embattled Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says a decision on his tenuous future won’t be fast-tracked, despite the club slumping to its worst start to a season in 16 years.
Speaking after the Magpies lost to Gold Coast for the first time in Melbourne, leaving them 17th with only one win from seven games, Buckley was prepared for more intense speculation on his future, but said the club remained committed to a late-season timeline.
He conceded his players had lost their defensive DNA edge and needed to swiftly find belief in themselves ahead of Saturday’s clash with bottom-of-the-table North Melbourne.
“The commentary around there being a disconnect in the leadership of the football club in regards to my tenure (is wrong),” Buckley said.
“Go back and listen to the interviews … (president) Mark Korda has spoken, (chief executive) Mark Anderson has spoken, I have spoken … Wrighty (general manager of football Graham Wright) has spoken.
“We are really clear on the timeline, you have your answer to that question.”
He dismissed suggestions the club’s deep salary cap crisis late last year and the trading of several key players had impacted on the cohesion of the current group.
“How often can you go back over it,” he said.
“We are not the same list that we were … our profile is very different and not just the focus of the players who have gone out in the last trade period, but in the players who retired.
“We are in a different phase really quickly but that’s what happens.”
Buckley said he would continue to be upfront with frustrated Collingwood fans, and wouldn’t “sugar-coat” or “sweep under the carpet” the issues confronting the club right now.
“We expect to be performing better … (but) I think there is an unrealistic expectation and a heavy focus on the club itself because we have given you a few storylines and you have run with it.
“That has been the same for this place since day dot.”
Buckley lamented his side’s poor defensive workrate as a key factor behind his side’s dramatic slump – saying they have lost their “DNA” of being able to defend the ground – a hallmark of their game for the past few seasons.
“We thought we could be better than we are at the moment, having said that, I think we have been favourites in our last four games, I don’t know on what basis,” Buckley said.
“Gold Coast were really good last week … we saw that today with their system, we couldn’t defend them as well as we would have liked.
“That’s largely where our greatest improvement has to come from. We have built our DNA on defending really well and clearly our offence going forward has been an area of improvement but we have lost our DNA of defending the ground really well.”
One of the players who has been missing from their defensive set-up is Darcy Moore after being shifted to the forward line to help solve their issues in attack.
The All-Australian centre-half-back went goalless, only accumulating five disposals for the afternoon.
However, Buckley believes the position in which Moore plays is “the least” of their issues and that it’s too early to tell whether the move has backfired.
“Darcy was quiet today in the forward line, we had plenty of supply as such but they worked a lot harder to get numbers behind us and we didn’t work as hard as we needed to even that up,” Buckley said.
“The question about Darcy will be a part of a whole heap of questions that we ask ourselves each week about how we are going to take the next step,
“He is playing in a role he hasn’t played in for a long time … he didn’t have a good day. If you want to pull out of a one or two game sample and then project that on the future, then fair enough, but we are still finding stuff out.”
Another of the Magpies underperforming stars, Jordan De Goey, went scoreless in his first-game back from concussion and struggled to impose his game-breaking ability on the contest as he split his time between the midfield and attack.
“We all looked like we lacked a bit of zip today outside of that third quarter where we found a bit of energy and our work rate lifted and we started imposing ourselves in the contest,” Buckley said.
“You can go to individuals but it is a collective at the moment.”
SUNS CONDEMN BATTLING PIES TO MCG NIGHTMARE
Collingwood’s dismal start to 2021 has taken yet another turn, falling to a ferocious Gold Coast outfit by 24 points, heaping further pressure on Magpies coach Nathan Buckley.
The Suns outplayed, out-marked (146-98 marks) and outworked (403-371 disposals) a slow and sloppy Magpies outfit who have now fallen to 1-6 – their worst start since 2005.
In their only trip to the MCG this season, the win was the Suns’ first at the ‘home of football’ since Round 12 2017 against Hawthorn.
Brandon Ellis (35 disposals, 16 marks) led the charge for the Suns while Touk Miller (34 disposals, eight marks) and Hugh Greenwood (25 disposals, 12 clearances) were instrumental in the middle while Josh Corbett booted four while clunking six marks inside 50.
It only took a matter of 15 seconds for the Suns to put their stamp on the game as Chris Burgess booted the opener following superb midfield work from the Gold Coast midfield.
Despite the Suns being well-ahead in disposals (111-93) and marks (40-24), the Magpies had the lead at the end of the first-term thanks to Brody Mihocek’s double.
However, the offensive would end there and the Suns would take advantage of Collingwood’s lack of pressure and flat defence, kicking 4.1 to 0.5 in the second-term to open up a 19-point halftime lead.
At the beginning of the second, there was a much-needed response from the Magpies and after a Josh Daicos snap – the lead was back to four points.
The Suns were able to withstand Collingwood’s early resurgence, kicking three of the last four of the term and maintaining their three-goal lead heading into the final-quarter.
Corbett put the dagger in the Magpies’ hopes of a second-half comeback kicking three last-quarter goals to seal Gold Coast’s third win of the season.
“We set our lads a challenge to backup the performance of last week,” Suns coach Stuart Dew said.
“It just felt mature, we’re still young but I think it shows the belief in how they want to play the game and how we want to play the game and our strengths to deliver on today was pleasing for us as a football club.”
At times, the Suns were hemmed into their attacking half by the way the Magpies set-up behind the ball but were able to play through it with daring attacking play via the corridor – a style of footy Dew said they look to promote internally.
“We found it hard to get through to be honest and we had to take some serious risks to get through,” Dew said.
“A couple of those were on the knife-edge, heart in your mouth a little bit when it’s coming through the corridor like that and you’re on the verge of a turnover and also on the verge of a score so we try and promote being brave with the ball.”
Gold Coast’s win was their first at the MCG since 2017 and the first for many Suns players who had not only never won at the ‘home of football’ but were playing their first game at the venue.
ELLIS RELISHES FAMILIAR SURROUNDS
The last time Brandon Ellis was at the home of football it was the 2019 Grand Final while celebrating a second premiership for the Tigers.
Today, he was one of the few Suns players to be familiar with the MCG surrounds and relished every moment putting in his best performance in a Gold Coast jersey – tallying 35 disposals and taking an astonishing 16 marks.
Ellis, alongside the superb in-and-under work of Hugh Greenwood and Touk Miller will only help take this team up the ladder as they search for their maiden finals appearance.
PUNCH THE BALL
It was the goal which summed up the Magpies first-half.
In the final stages of the second-term, Brandon Ellis’ centring kick towards goal from around 60 metres out found its way through a forest of Magpies defenders, including the taller bodies of Jordan Roughead and Brodie Grundy and somehow bounced in for a goal.
Simply, it was an unforgivable blunder which sucked the life out of an already despondent and crestfallen Magpies faithful.
MIHOCEK SOLO-EFFORT
For much of the day it was Brody Mihocek vs Gold Coast.
As marquee men Darcy Moore and Jordan De Goey failed to impact the game in attack, Mihocek was the one and only act up forward for the Magpies’ uninspiring front six.
The 28-year-old booted their first three of the game and ended up with four the game while showcasing his superb workrate around the ground – reeling in 12 marks for the afternoon.
PIES: 2.3, 2.8, 5.11, 7.13 (55)
SUNS: 2.2, 6.3, 9.3, 12.7 (79)
D’URBANO’S BEST
PIES: Mihocek, Daicos, Pendlebury, Noble, Quaynor
SUNS: Miller, Ellis, Greenwood, Bowes, Corbett, Powell,
GOALS
PIES: Mihocek 4, Daicos, Noble, Grundy
SUNS: Corbett 4, King 2, Swallow 2, Burgess, Rankine, Ellis, Greenwood
VENUE: 24,397 @ MCG
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
D’URBANO’S VOTES
3: Brandon Ellis (GC)
2: Touk Miller (GC)
1: Hugh Greenwood (GC)
PIES SKIPPER BACKS BUCKS
Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury says embattled coach Nathan Buckley remains as committed to driving the standards of the group as he has ever been in the wake of the Magpies’ early-season struggles.
Speaking just an hour before the Magpies’ clash with Gold Coast, Pendlebury said the chemistry within the group had not been to the standard required and was something that needed some work, especially with the new faces that had come into the side.
Asked specifically about Buckley, who is out of contract at the end of the season and facing growing heat by the week, Pendlebury said on 3AW: “As a footy person, I see the external conversation and the discussion around his position as coach.
“But internally I see a guy who is incredibly motivated and driving the group. He is a great person and has created a very strong environment with the leaders over the last four or five years.”
It comes as Collingwood head of football Graham Wright said on ABC radio that any decision on the coaching position would be “a collegiate” approach and would be done later in the season, regardless of what happened on the field now.
Pendlebury said: “I think (there is an issue) it is a bit of chemistry amongst the group and understanding how everyone plays. We have had a few changes every week, so it is about embedding our system and our brand and how we want to play and understanding how we want to play.”
Originally published as Collingwood v Gold Coast: Nathan Buckley’s coaching future under question
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