Pies legend Nathan Buckley opens up on his ‘disgraceful’ behaviour in early years as a player

Pies champ Nathan Buckley has opened up on his “disgraceful” behaviour in his early years as an AFL player, revealing he now realised he disrespected his teammates and club.

Collingwood champion Nathan Buckley has confessed to coping with the pressures of competition in the early days of his AFL career by “drinking heavily” on weekends, among other “damaging behaviours”.

One of the most revered figures in Collingwood history, Buckley won six Copeland trophies as best and fairest and captained the club for nine seasons.

He admitted on The Imperfects podcast this week, however, that at times he had struggled with the pressure, although he had not recognised that was the case at the time.

“There were coping (mechanisms) — drinking heavily on a weekend, because if I couldn’t control it all, then I wanted to forget it, so I went down that cycle (of) ‘I want to control everything, but then I want to control nothing’,” Buckley said.

“There were a lot of ineffective, damaging behaviours that were in there. Probably the way around you viewed yourself, as much as anything. But a lot of numbing and coping strategies to try and handle that intensity of performance.”

Nathan Buckley at Victoria Park in 1993.

Buckley speaks to the media in 2021. Picture: Getty

Buckley, 52, also said he had been spoken to by coaches about his on-field attitude towards his teammates, regarding his “very visible disappointment, vitriol, whatever you want to call it”.

“My body language was terrible at those early stages, and it was disrespectful to myself, to my teammates, to the team, to the club, to the AFL, to the position and the benefit that I had of running around on the middle of the MCG,” he said.

“To behave the way that I behaved was disgraceful, really, when I step back.”

A summary for the podcast episode explains Buckley was “placed on a pedestal during his playing career” and was “Collingwood’s favourite son”, but unbeknown to many he felt enormous pressure.

“Communicating only through criticism, both to himself and his teammates, Bucks says he was ‘demented’ in the way he trained,” the summary notes.

An emotional Buckley leaves the MCG in 1995.

Buckley in 1994.

But he went on to change his whole approach to both playing and coaching, “unlearning that playing good footy meant being worthy and how letting go and asking for help completely changed his relationship with himself”.

Earlier this year Buckley told the Herald Sun that, three years on from his separation from wife Tania, he had been forced to make some “difficult” decisions related to his football career including seeing memorabilia from his lifetime in footy auctioned off as part of his divorce settlement.

Buckley reportedly “bought back” some of the more cherished items, including his 2003 Brownlow Medal and 2002 Norm Smith Medal, along with his Copeland prizes.