Nathan Buckley dealing with more pre-season injuries heading into another critical season
HEADING into another crucial season, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley again has to deal with injuries to his best players and a second off-field indiscretion from youngster Jordan De Goey.
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NATHAN Buckley is only 45, but it might be a miracle he hasn’t gone grey.
The Collingwood coach is admirably unflappable in the public eye, but he’d only be human if he wondered “why me?” behind closed doors.
Despite penning a new two-year contract, Buckley appears to be once again heading into a crucial season (aren’t they all when you’re coaching Collingwood?) with one arm tied behind his back.
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This time it’s an injury list containing arguably his five most exciting players.
Jamie Elliott (ankle) is unlikely to play any JLT games, Alex Fasolo (shoulder) is only hopeful of featuring in the series, Darcy Moore (achilles) won’t rejoin full training until next week at the earliest, Jeremy Howe (calf) is yet to join match simulation and we now hear Daniel Wells is battling achilles soreness.
But we’ve seen this movie before.
About this time last year Jordan De Goey broke his hand in a bar fight after initially telling Buckley he hurt it throwing a toy to his dog.
And now De Goey has created another headache for his coach after he was caught drink driving on Saturday night, blowing nearly twice the legal limit.
In 2016 Howe needed surgery on his finger after telling the Magpies he broke it while playing frisbee with his dog.
The next month Dane Swan broke three bones in his foot against Sydney in Round 1 and never played again.
Buckley has overseen a Collingwood team that has slipped from fourth to eighth, 11th, 12th, 12th and 13th in his six years in charge.
The Magpies haven’t played finals since 2013.
But is there any danger the bloke can take a trick?
It’s only February, but it’s an ugly casualty list — without Elliott, Fasolo, Wells, Moore and Howe, the list looks decidedly more PG-rated than sprinkled with X-factor.
Of course, there’s every chance all five recover and make significant contributions to Collingwood’s season, but this is a game increasingly unforgiving when it comes to interrupted preparations.
Kevin White was promoted from within to oversee strength and conditioning in what has quickly become something of a baptism of fire.
White replaced high-performance manager Bill Davoren, who was a casualty of the club’s internal review.
Wells, whose sloppy pre-season this time 12 months ago has been well-documented, had enjoyed a solid summer.
But any achilles issue has to be a concern, given he missed the entire 2015 season after achilles tendon soreness led to surgery.
“He has a little bit of an achilles soreness right now, which is maybe a sign of his loading because he has had a pretty consistent summer,” Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh told SEN.
“We will keep him in a rehab sense for the next week or two to get him back joining into the footy program. I will expect Daniel to play JLT, because he has had a much better summer.”
It’s hard to say the same for Buckley, who must wonder if he’s been cursed.
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