Nathan Buckley on Fox Footy media role, Craig McRae and Collingwood
Nathan Buckley’s phone ran hot within days of him leaving Collingwood — he explains why he chose media instead of coaching, what he’ll bring to Fox Footy and Craig McRae’s Pies.
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It is Friday afternoon and Nathan Buckley is just finishing a day of filming for an upcoming Fox Footy project as he answers his phone.
The Friday night sports run for his teenage boys isn’t far off but first a chance to chat about his new television gig.
Life after eight months of lockdown — punctuated by a month in the jungle for a reality TV show — about to get insanely busy again.
Yet the elephant in the room is impossible to miss, with Buckley’s former side Collingwood strutting its stuff against Hawthorn in Morwell at the same time the conversation unfolds.
And the first glimpses of Craig McRae’s new game style, his new recruits and a new philosophy are seriously impressive.
Footy’s back! Everything you need to know for 2022 is in the Herald Sun footy magazine. On sale now for $7.95 with the Herald Sun. Click here for more details.
Buckley, 49, would be the first recent senior coach in recent memory to cheer for his former side if it surged back up the ladder with another man in the hot seat.
Yet what he makes clear in utterly convincing detail is that he actually is that person given the nature of his departure.
No schadenfreude if they battle to make an impact, no consideration of what might have been if McRae’s methods tap into the young list’s potential.
After spending more than half his adult life at Collingwood it is time to see what else is on the horizon, which might be senior coaching but for the next two years seems likely to be a full-on media career.
“I am looking forward to immersing myself in the media landscape more than I have before,” he tells the Herald Sun ahead of Wednesday’s Fox Footy media launch.
“My family is my purpose, but having this space in the AFL landscape, this is unique. I was in the media for a couple of years (with Channel 7 between playing and coaching) but it was always a means to an end at that point. I don’t know what the future holds but I just want to enjoy this for what it is.
“I watched Collingwood from afar (after the July 14 finish) and separated myself as cleanly as I could from the club.
“It was important to give Harves (caretaker Robert Harvey) and the club its space. It’s better to have a clean break. That is pretty much what it was. I am just watching them now. They are playing really well, you can clearly see the ‘go-forward’ mentality that ‘Fly’ (McRae) has brought from Richmond. It’s early days but I want to see them do well. I always want to see them do really well.”
“I don’t have a bone in my body (wishing them ill). I was fully invested. I gave everything I could, we came together as a group and had our good times and challenges. There has been a lot of change but I want to see them do well.”
Collingwood is in Buckley’s blood — 14 years as a player, two as an assistant coach and a decade as a senior coach including that oh-so-close 2018 Grand Final.
Yet instead of any gnashing of teeth, Buckley’s was handed something amounting to a heroic farewell as he famously handed his senior players only one message – “Thank you” – at three quarter time in that Round 14 win over eventual premiers Melbourne.
He feels blessed he was able to say goodbye in that manner as well as having realised before it was too late the friendships are just as valuable as the on field achievements.
“To speak personally I haven’t been of the mindset to be able to smell the roses and to have the gratitude for where I had got to or been. That was just the way I was wired along the majority of the journey. I got better as I went along,” he reflects.
“The irony of the whole thing is the way it finished I was able to absorb it and it was tremendously rewarding to finish on a note in the last few weeks.
“For me the realisation in the last few years — two or three or four years — is the value of true friendship.
“People that stand by you through thick and thin. I have had great mates. I have great mates. But I was so tunnel visioned as a player that I was still focused on what was going on around me.
“People come into the footy club and I was so consumed by the people in my space I didn’t find enough time for people who weren’t in that space. It becomes transactional.
“Mick Malthouse says it and Shawry (Tony Shaw) and Leigh Matthews, If you come out of the game with three or four great mates you have done exceptionally well. The true value of friendship is something I have been fortunate to feel and benefit from in that last period.”
Buckley is aware he will be a walking headline generator in his new roles.
It goes with the turf in the modern media.
Google-search Nathan Buckley and the headlines from his early radio sorties on Monday are strong.
“AFL star is not speaking to Nathan Buckley” and “Bucks’ big warning to De Goey and why he hates Dusty comparison”, are only a small sample.
But when there is time on TV and radio he wants to dig deeper, is keen to deconstruct the myths, is happy to have tough on-air conversations where there is no quick answer or easy solution.
“That is the real challenge, I have become a hard earned cynic with my experiences and I don’t think I am going to come in and change the way sports media is run in Melbourne, but I do want to be a part of opening it up a little bit more in whatever that looks like, on SEN, Foxtel, whether it’s in my commentary, in game or whether in analysis or whether I am talking to Garry Lyon or a caller,” he says.
“I don’t have the definitive answers but I have a perspective and I am more than happy to test it with people who might have a different perspective. I don’t want to be a professional devil’s advocate but I want to come at it from a different perspective.”
For so long on the treadmill of football, Buckley has deliberately tested his boundaries.
His time in the jungle for Ten’s I’m a Celebrity … Get me out of Here” was a joy — “I was in the mood to say yes to things I wouldn’t normally consider” — even if the human connections he made were more enjoyable than actually watching the end result when it was edited months later for TV.
The coach in him will never die, with Buckley keen to explore those leadership conversations in the boardrooms around Australia as well as investigate the mental health space in some shape or form.
He will again be a smash hit as a TV figure, but as he admitted this week the calls from rival clubs came as soon as he moved on from Collingwood.
Could he resist a return to coaching for the media game that he has such a love-hate relationship?
“I am not even projecting that far. I am really short-term. My eyes are low, so to speak.
“I am really looking forward to jumping into this. I have come out of that period where for the first time in 30 years I haven’t had a clear purpose to chase. And I am really enjoying being in that space. There is no shining prize at the end of the road.
“So what you want to do then is be as impactful and positive a contributor to the organisations I am part of.
“I am also big in the mental health space. I am not sure exactly what that looks like but I would like to be able to help people see things in their life that are really positive and sustainable because there is an attitude of looking at the things you haven’t got rather than looking at the things that are in front of you.
“So they are a couple of the places I love being in and I don’t know exactly what my future looks like, but I am happy to sit here and see what comes.”
BUCKS OPENS UP ON TRELOAR, DE GOEY AND MORE
Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Nathan Buckley says he’s yet to speak with former Magpie Adam Treloar as he opened up on a range of topics including his departure as Collingwood senior coach last year.
Buckley left the club where he played from 1994 to 2007 and then coached from 2012 to 2021 in June last year, after Collingwood won the Queen’s Birthday match against Melbourne.
But a number of issues lingered over the powerhouse club leading up to the decision.
Speaking on SEN radio, Buckley opened up about some of the big issues at the Magpies.
Footy’s back! Everything you need to know for 2022 is in the Herald Sun footy magazine. On sale now for $7.95 with the Herald Sun. Click here for more details.
THE 2020 TRADE PERIOD
The Magpies came under huge scrutiny during the 2020 trade period when, despite initial insistence that it was not the case, a salary cap crunch forced them to tell contracted players they had to find new homes.
Adam Treloar left for the Western Bulldogs, Tom Phillips for Hawthorn and Jaidyn Stephenson and Atu Bosenavulagi to North Melbourne.
Treloar’s was the biggest departure of the disastrous trade period for the Pies, especially after the now Bulldog said Buckley told him in a phone call senior players no longer wanted him at Collingwood – a claim disputed by Buckley.
Buckley said he hoped to be eventually able to reconnect with Treloar.
“The trade period was difficult and there is no doubt those changes in those landscape bled into 2021,” he said.
“I’ve dropped him a line a couple of times but we are yet to speak … there’s two parties in that situation.
“I had a coffee with Tom Phillips … that was a very similar situation, he still had a year on his contract.
“I still haven’t been able to sit down with Ads … I’d be up for it but it needs to be something that he is comfortable with as well.
“He has a full life, he has a young family, a new club and football commitments.
“If and when the time is right I would love to be able to connect with Ads again.”
THE DO BETTER REPORT
The 2020 trade period was quickly usurped as the biggest issue regarding Collingwood after the leaking, then releasing of the Do Better report into claims of systemic racism at the club.
The report found there was “systemic racism within the Collingwood Football Club that must be addressed if things are to change”.
The review was commissioned following a series of claims made by 2010 premiership player Héritier Lumumba.
The decision by then president Eddie McGuire, one of Buckley’s staunchest supporters, to say it was “a historic and proud day” for the club when it was released eventually led to his decision to resign after massive outrage to his response.
Buckley said Collingwood weren’t alone in having issues.
“Every football club, every organisation in Australia has an issue with systemic racism,” he said.
“The fact that Collingwood was prepared to put their hand up and own its poor past in it I think it’s something that every organisation in Australia is doing.
“Collingwood had to own its past and present to move forward and I think it is doing that.
“There is still plenty of work to do but there is no organisation in Australia that is beyond reapproach in that.”
Buckley has come under fire on repeat occasions from former teammate Lumumba for being dismissive of his claims of racism at the club, something that Buckley has conceded was the case.
He said he had tried to speak to Lumumba but was not yet successful.
“I’d like to but it is very similar to Ads. You can’t have someone present the way you want them to. You have to meet them where they are,” he said.
“And sometimes they don’t want to be met.
“Yeah I have (attempted) to, a couple of emails because H is in LA at the moment and once again he is in a solid relationship and has a young boy who he is bringing up.
“He is very passionate and driven about just what not he views is injustices in the AFL but right across society.
“What I have learnt more and more, not in this circumstance but in life in general is you have to stay open minded and you have to be prepared to listen.”
THE DEPARTURE … AND OFFERS FROM OTHER CLUBS
Buckley said there was no bitterness towards the Pies after his time as senior coach ended last year.
Up until he made the call Buckley was under fierce pressure, with only a year on his deal at the Magpies.
He said he was happy at the way it ended.
“For that to happen I think you have to respect on both sides and I think that was there,” he said.
“I think the club was really respectful, especially Wrighty (Graham Wright) in particular. He came in with fresh eyes and understood there was a need for change.
“No (bitterness) not from me and the club moves on, you don’t stay there for ever and the club moves on.”
Now on the open market, the availability of Buckley is set to hang over under pressure coaches in 2022.
He said he had no idea of what his future would hold in regards to coaching, and revealed clubs quickly got in contact with him after he left Collingwood.
“There was immediately, in July/August last year there was a lot of talks about what about this what about that,” he said.
“And I had to say hand on heart to a couple of clubs I wouldn’t be doing the right thing by you in putting my hand up for this … I needed a bit of time.”
DON’T COMPARE LAST CHANCE DE GOEY TO DUSTY
Buckley also said Collingwood star Jordan De Goey was “tarred” for his off-field indiscretions and he felt that he was on his last chance at the Magpies.
De Goey endured a turbulent off-season, only returning to the Magpies last month after a highly publicised altercation in a New York bar late last year.
The Pies star pleaded guilty to a harassment charge in a US court.
Buckley said De Goey needed to learn from this, and when asked if he thought he was on his last chance he replied “I think he may be yeah”.
“I do feel once you are tarred with something … the watch is out on him, the focus is on him,” he said.
“He is being shaped up and analysed for his off-field stuff so he needs to clean up that.
“Jordy has always been a risk taker, he has always been someone who acts first and then thinks second.
“If he hasn’t learnt his lesson now he will never but I think he is on the right path.”
Buckley also said the expectations of De Goey were way too high, saying he shouldn’t be compared to Richmond superstar Dustin Martin.
“On Jordy in particular … there is so much focus on his off-field stuff how about we focus on his on-field stuff,” he said.
“He gets compared to Dustin Martin a lot and I hate that comparison.
“Because I think Dusty, along with Wayne Carey and Leigh Matthews by the time Dusty is finished his name will be up with those two in my mind as the most impactful careers that I’ve witnessed.
“So the comparison is pretty hard.”
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