Darren Jolly takes aim at Nathan Buckley and Collingwood’s coaching succession plan
IT’S not the first time Darren Jolly has aired his grievances with Nathan Buckley. On Monday night, the Pies premiership ruckman had another dig.
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COLLINGWOOD’S 2010 premiership ruckman Darren Jolly has questioned the Pies’ coaching succession plan and taken aim at his former coach Nathan Buckley.
As the pressure mounts on the 1-3 Pies, Buckley was on TV on Monday night fending off questions about his club’s form and saying his team cops more scrutiny than others.
And he hasn’t received any support from Jolly, the former Collingwood ruckman who finished his career under Buckley.
In a statement on Monday night, Jolly said he was “tired of no-one putting their hand up and taking responsibility for the fall from grace” his club had gone through since playing in grand finals in 2010 and 2011.
He then launched an assault on Buckley and questioned whether the Pies may have been better positioned had they stuck with former coach Mick Malthouse.
“Facts don’t lie! Instead of Bucks stating the obvious after games (saying) ‘we need to play better’ maybe Ed needs to look at whether the ‘succession plan’ has worked!” Jolly told Footy Classified.
“Players don’t last four years if they underperform, why should a coach?”
There is a history of ill feeling from Jolly towards Buckley.
In an interview in 2013, Jolly blasted the coach, labelling him “a coward” as he believed Buckley had not adequately detailed why time was called on his career.
“The day he told me I was no longer needed at the club and they weren’t going to renew my contract, the reasons he was giving me were all excuses, and that was probably the main disappointment; that he couldn’t man up and tell me face-to-face why I wasn’t going to be at the club,” Jolly said.
Following the 2013 interview Pies president McGuire described Jolly’s outburst as “way over the odds”.
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