Nathan Buckley admits he won’t coach Collingwood beyond 2017 if team misses finals next year

NATHAN Buckley has admitted he won’t be the coach of Collingwood beyond 2017 should the club fail to feature in the AFL finals series next year.

Nathan Buckley has admitted his days as coach are numbered if Collingwood doesn’t make finals in 2017.

NATHAN Buckley has admitted he won’t be the coach of Collingwood beyond 2017 should the club fail to feature in the AFL finals series next year.

Buckley, contracted to the club until the end of next year, has been the Magpies’ senior coach since 2012, but the team’s finishing ladder position has decreased every season since he has been at the helm.

The Pies currently sit 12th on the ladder — the same spot they finished in at the end of last season — with just two rounds left.

With only one year left to run on his contract, Buckley said he was in a unique situation in that his job and “worth” would come down to the performance of his team’s 2017 campaign.

But Buckley admitted that “if we don’t win, you don’t stay” in a sport with “high-performance expectations”.

Asked if he could realistically see himself as Collingwood coach beyond 2017 if the team didn’t feature in finals next season, Buckley told SEN: “There’s no way.”

Buckley added: “There might be things outside of our control. We need things to fall into place as a program for us. We need a little bit of luck, we need to be harder, we need to be more consistent — these are all things that we know are going to be the difference between us maximising our potential. It’s not a talent thing

“I’m on the hook flat out, we’re all on the hook flat out for it and it’s really important for us to make this work.

“We know if we play our brand of footy consistently, we’ll win games of footy — and we’ve got to win enough to qualify and that’s the test and it’s the coaches responsibility.”

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire wasn’t pleased with his coach’s public comments.

“He’s put a bit of pressure on himself, Bucks, because he’s too honest at times. He shouldn’t even be answering that question at this stage of the game,” McGuire told Fox Footy.

“He was asked the question, good on him for answering — but it’s not even a story.”

Magpies head coach Nathan Buckley has been senior coach since 2012.

Buckley also opened up on the controversial planned handover between him and Mick Malthouse at the end of the 2011 season.

The 44-year-old said he wasn’t approached to delay the handover, but considered asking Malthouse to stay on as senior coach due to Collingwood’s form at the time.

“Right so this is happening, we’re talking about this publicly,” Buckley said.

“I thought that clearly the side was going well and clearly we were playing in a significant vein of form. Mick was coaching really well and had a really strong connection with the players but the leadership of the club was really keen on just not looking at 2012 but looking beyond that to where we needed to get to.

“We had an understanding of where that was going to go and it wasn’t until very late in the piece that Mick decided he didn’t want to be a part of what was going forward.

“There’s no doubt that had an impact because the plans for that were pretty well ensconced.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I’d contend that group could have possibly contended in 2012 which it did, maybe in 2013, which we didn’t, but beyond that it was going to need regeneration anyway.

“Fundamentally, when I sat down with myself and others I asked do we as a club — and clearly this will sound bizarre given our on-field performance since, but if you really want to dig deep into that you’ll see the reasons for it — but I fundamentally felt will I positively impact this environment and the football club for long-term success?”

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Originally published as Nathan Buckley admits he won’t coach Collingwood beyond 2017 if team misses finals next year