Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley opens up on a tumultuous week at the Magpies
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has hit back at suggestions he’s hurting his football club by continuing to make public comments, as coach Nathan Buckley responds after a tumultuous week for the Magpies.
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Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has rejected suggestions he’s hurting the club by making public comments in what has been a tumultuous week for the Magpies.
McGuire last week said he was “proud” of Sidebottom for the way he’s handled his four-match ban for numerous breaches of the AFL’s COVID-19 protocols and said that penalty was severe.
Footage later emerged of McGuire from late April, declaring the next player caught breaking the rules should be fined $100,000 and suspended for the year.
When asked whether he thought he was “hurting” Collingwood with his comments, as suggested by Brisbane champion Jonathan Brown, McGuire said on Footy Classified: “No”.
“Jonathan Brown once said we trained appallingly as he walked past the Holden Centre and looked over the fence.
“He didn’t realise it was a captain’s run and a non-compulsory (session).
“Jonathan Brown has got zero understanding of what happens in the Collingwood Football Club.”
McGuire clarified his comments about being proud of Sidebottom in the wake of his Saturday bender, which began at teammate Jeremy Howe’s house after it was confirmed he required surgery on his injured knee.
“I said I was proud with the way he reacted. He took the four weeks on the chin, that he didn’t appeal and he didn’t squeal and he didn’t complain and he gave us the utmost truth and I was proud of that, in conjunction with his unblemished career,” he said.
“I said there we weren’t happy with what happened and of course we’re not. That seems to be pretty straight forward.”
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The Collingwood president said he’d be happy to make no public comments if it meant the Magpies would win this year’s premiership, before walking off the set and returning shortly after.
“If that’s the case I’ll you what, if the decision was Collingwood would win the flag if I was silent, it’d be very simple and I’d go right now and never come back,” he said.
Nathan Buckley says Collingwood is striving to be a more inclusive, better organisation in the wake of a trifecta of recent controversies – Jordan De Goey‘s indecent assault charge, Steele Sidebottom’s four-game AFL protocol ban and allegations of a club culture of racism levelled by former Magpie Heritier Lumumba.
And while Buckley defended president McGuire’s right to express his opinion on club matters, he said the Pies’ football department played its own significant role in the process.
After a tumultuous week on and off the field, Buckley will aim to get the club’s 2020 season back on track against Hawthorn on Friday night – without two of the club’s best players – after successive losses.
De Goey and Sidebottom were in a small party of players who flew to Perth on Tuesday. They will reunite with the main group over there on Saturday following the club’s clash with the Hawks at Giants Stadium.
Buckley and football boss Geoff Walsh are yet to speak with Sidebottom face-to-face following his boozy brain-fade that resulted in a four-game sanction for breaching three AFL COVID-19 protocols.
But he stressed the Magpie vice-captain was unlikely to face any club-imposed penalties, aside from his AFL ban.
He said neither De Goey or Sidebottom were “not perfect people” but would learn from their experiences.
“Jordy’s matter from 2015 is in the hands of police now,” Buckley said.
“Steele‘s (ban) has been well documented … we will address Steele, his learnings and our learnings of the situation when we get to speak with him internally.
“The club has appointed an independent arbiter or investigator (Professor Larissa Behrendt AO) for the claims around Heritier‘s experience which we hope to learn and grow from and (we) look forward to being better in that space.”
Buckley defended Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s right to express his opinion on club matters, but said the football department played its own significant role.
“I can understand the focus on that,” Buckley said of McGuire’s recent comments.
“And there’s been a fair bit of commentary about it. What I would say is that Ed, as the president, is entitled to make whatever he comments about the football club he wishes at any time. He does find himself in front of a microphone or a camera quite often given his role.
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“The next part of that is the actual football program itself. Once the board puts people in positions, we operate quite separately to the board. And we’ve got great leadership in the football program that is responsible and accountable for on-field performance and — along with the CEO — any cultural and behavioural issues, and we deal with them as appropriately as we possibly can.”
Buckley said while externally it may appear “there is a lot going on” at Collingwood, he insisted players and staff were getting on with the job of making the club a better place.
“We are addressing all of these issues,” he said.
“We are constantly addressing how we can get better and how we can provide a better environment, one for our people internally, and then for our members and our supporters as best as we possibly can, both on and off the field.”
Asked about the current mindset of De Goey and Sidebottom, Buckley said each had time to think about how they can be “better people” from the experiences.
“If you have done wrong and it’s splashed over the papers or you’re in a public existence, it’s going to be a little bit difficult to handle that as much as your own conscience, I suppose, to deal with your role in the situation you’re in,” he said.
“I hope that both of the boys are thinking about how they can contribute to the football club and become better people from their experiences, whether it‘s public or it’s private.
“We drive that as much as we possibly can.
“They’re not perfect people and they’ve been hauled publicly over the coals at the moment, and we will continue to support them as much as we can while holding them to account especially internally with what we’re aware of.”
Buckley said of McGuire’s recent comments in support of Sidebottom: “What I would say is that Ed, as the president, is entitled to make whatever he comments about the football club he wishes at any time. He does find himself in front of a microphone or a camera quite often given his role.
‘’The next part of that is the actual football program itself.
“Once the board puts people in positions, we operate quite separately to the board. And we’ve got great leadership in the football program that is responsible and accountable for on-field performance and – along with the CEO – any cultural and behavioural issues, and we deal with them as appropriately as we possibly can.”
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