Eddie McGuire backs Collingwood to turn it around against Essendon on Anzac Day

NATHAN Buckley believes the scrutiny on Collingwood is far greater than any other club but he wouldn’t be a senior coach if he couldn’t handle the pressure.

AFL: Round 4 Collingwood v Melbourne Nathan Buckley 3/4 time Picture:Wayne Ludbey

NATHAN Buckley believes the scrutiny on Collingwood is far greater than any other club but he wouldn’t be a senior coach if he couldn’t handle the pressure.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire again went into bat for his embattled coach after the Magpies’ 35-point loss to Melbourne on Sunday, the second week in a row they’ve lost a match they should have won.

The Magpies shaky 1-3 start to the season has heaped more pressure on Buckley, who said the extra scrutiny the club receives was unhelpful.

“If you don’t want pressure don’t take on a senior coaching gig,” Buckey told AFL 360.

“If you really don’t like pressure don’t take on the Collingwood coaching gig.

WHICH AFL COACH WOULD YOU LEAST LIKE TO BE? BUCKS? THAT AND MORE IN THIS WEEK’S SUPERFOOTY PODCAST:

“Externally, there’s far too much up and down with what we do. I look at other clubs from afar and I think that they’re just a bit more even and I wonder what that would do for performance but that’s not our reality.

“You can’t avoid it (scrutiny). More of the boys are on social media.

“The armoury of a professional athlete these days, whether you’re a professional footballer or whatever, is being able to handle and deal with and cope with the external scrutiny.”

Nathan Buckley talks to his players at three-quarter time. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Buckley demanded greater consistency from his players as the Magpies seek to keep their season alive against Essendon in next Monday’s Anzac Day clash.

He also put the heat on Travis Cloke, who is in doubt for the Bombers match after hurting his elbow against the Demons.

“We have to look at his elbow and see how he goes,” Buckley said.

“We have quite a young squad at the moment and he’s a senior player with 230 games of experience and we need him to stand up more than he has at this point in time.”

McGuire said earlier in the day Buckley was the man to lift the Magpies up the ladder.

“He is the coach of the Collingwood Football Club, we’re one and three, it’s early days in the season,” McGuire told Channel 9’s The Today Show.

“It is a topsy-turvy year, teams that have been at the bottom of the ladder for a number of years now, we’re getting all of the draft picks starting to come through, that is the nature of the evolution of football.

“We’ve got a pretty good list, we’re just not putting it together at the moment, so we’re going to put our head down and there’s no better day than Anzac Day for Collingwood to come out against Essendon and stamp ourselves and get our season rolling.

“No, we don’t react that way at Collingwood, we’ll stand side-by-side as our song says, we’ll stick together and we’ll prevail.”

Eddie McGuire watches his players walk off the MCG after the loss to Melbourne. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Buckley didn’t hold back in his post-match press conference on Sunday, adamant he would make some hard calls at the selection table to turn his team’s fortunes around heading into Anzac Day.

“We have got enough evidence now to make some calls on guys,” he said.

“There are some boys who are continuing to put their prospects at risk.”

Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury agreed with Buckley’s comments after the loss to Melbourne that it was time for tough calls to be made at the selection table.

“If you dish up a poor game and think Bucks is going to cop it for you then you’re in the wrong caper,” Pendlebury told Channel 7.