Magpies’ defensive improvement the secret reason behind the Collingwood coaches’ facial hair
NATHAN Buckley is a competitive beast, but even he is happy to lose this bet. The Collingwood coach hopes to finish the season with a beard rivalling the best, and here’s why.
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NATHAN Buckley is a competitive beast, but even he is happy to lose this bet.
The Collingwood senior coach has been on the receiving end of many barbs about his surprise brown-grey facial growth this season.
But if it was up to the usually clean-shaven Magpies’ icon, he will finish the season looking as bushy as Ned Kelly.
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Basically, the longer his whiskers grow this season, the better the Pies’ defence has performed.
Why? After Round 6, Collingwood’s coaching and playing group made a little-known bet to help plug some stoppage holes.
The Magpies had conceded too many costly scores from ball-ups and boundary throw-ins in their back line early in the season, and vowed to lock down on the opposition’s goal kickers at these stoppages.
So they all made a wager, and have since surged up the ladder.
If the Pies players coughed up a stoppage goal in the back line, by allowing a loose man to duck around the back of a ball-up, for example, they weren’t allowed to shave for the week.
But if the players kept a clean sheet, it was the coaches who had to put the razors away.
As much as the coaches’ wives and partners might be complaining about their scruffy-looking partners in recent weeks, the reality is Bucks’ new beard is a secret sign of the Pies’ on-field success in 2018.
Seventh-placed Collingwood hasn’t conceded a stoppage goal over the past three games and is hoping the trend continues in Monday’s Queen’s Birthday blockbuster against an on-fire Melbourne forward line at the MCG.
The Demons have probably the hottest forward line in the competition, including All-Australian contender Jake Melksham, gun big men Jesse Hogan and Tom McDonald and No.2 draft pick Christian Petracca.
Buckley said he was happy to let his facial hair grow, if the lockdown continued on-field.
“We don’t want to give this game up to the Dees,” Buckley said.
“But if this particular aspect of our game is clean, well then we’re going to have some scruffy coaches on the other side of the bye.”
While the Pies’ much-improved midfield and 21-goal forward line in the win over Fremantle on Sunday has been lauded, some of the young Pies are also thriving in the back half.
Remarkably, Brayden Maynard has conceded only one goal in seven games, first-year hard nut Flynn Appleby has given up only four majors in six matches, and veteran Lynden Dunn continues to provide extraordinary value, giving up just 11 majors in as many games.
And from a coaching perspective, new defensive boss Justin Longmuir has been praised for his impact on the surging Pies since crossing from West Coast.
Captain Scott Pendlebury said Longmuir was a senior coach in the making.
But it was not completely smooth-sailing for the coaching panel, Buckley said.
“For anyone that has had a beard, I don’t know where my moustache ends and my nose hairs begin,” Buckley said on Triple M.
“I’ve got a real issue up top here, and I’m not used to having my nose tickled. What do you do with that?”
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