Nathan Buckley says Collingwood at a ‘tipping point’ after loss to Essendon

NATHAN Buckley concedes the doubt over his future is affecting his players, saying the Magpies have “lost a bit of hope” in the club’s worst season since 2005.

Nathan Buckley during Collingwood’s clash against Essendon.

NATHAN Buckley conceded the snowballing doubt over his coaching future was affecting Collingwood’s players, who have “lost a bit of hope” in the club’s worst season since 2005.

The Magpies could end Round 16 in 17th position after slumping to 5-10 with a 37-point loss to Essendon at the MCG.

An honest Buckley said Collingwood had reached “a bit of a tipping point” after its fourth consecutive defeat.

“That effort we haven’t seen all year,” Buckley said.

“The contest was off, we just didn’t work hard in defence (and) some of our offensive turnovers would’ve really hurt.

“I thought it was the first time that I’d seen the players look like they’d lost a bit of hope.”

Nathan Buckley chats to Scott Pendlebury.

On his shaky future, the out-of-contract and under siege coach admitted: “I’m pragmatic, I’m not defeatist”.

On his ability, Buckley said: “There’s two things in it, I think there’s hard work and there’s talent. I’m working really hard”.

The 5-10 Pies are enduring their worst season in captain Scott Pendlebury’s team and Saturday was the first time the club has lost to Essendon twice since 2005.

The Pies have declined in each of Buckley’s six seasons in charge and he has the worst winning percentage of the club’s seven 100-game coaches – 51.16 per cent.

Buckley said the constant speculation on him had to be distracting his charges.

“They’re only human, and there’s no doubt that it does impact in some form,” Buckley said.

“That’s the reality, and it ain’t changing.

Collingwood players walk off the MCG after the loss to Essendon.

“The win-loss stacks up and reality sinks in at some point – for the players in particular.”

Buckley stated last year that there was “no way” he could keep his job without returning Collingwood to September in 2017.

With finals now a pipedream, Buckley said the Pies needed to “reframe and give the players something to achieve” in the final seven rounds.

“I know I said that (we must play finals), and it’ll all come out in the wash,” he said.

“(The next seven weeks) is their careers, it’s their futures, it’s the opportunity they have to play AFL football week-in, week-out – it’s not something to take for granted.”

Buckley said Levi Greenwood was “relatively distraught” after elbowing Zach Merrett in a strike likely to cost him a suspension.

Buckley said it didn’t look like that was Greenwood’s intent and added he was a tough but fair player.

Dual All-Australian Nathan Brown said: “Most people that watch Collingwood can’t see a gameplan”.

But Buckley defended his team’s ball movement.

“We controlled the ball and shifted it sideways. I can understand people wondering why you would actually kick to a teammate across the field, well the reason is you pull your opposition defence out,” he said.

“And Essendon are a side that fold back a fair bit. So we wanted to work the ball into an area where we could go deep inside our forward 50m.”

Buckley conceded the club regressed yesterday, but backed his players.

“I’ll defend them to the hilt,” he said.

“They’ve given everything they’ve got to this point. It was a bit of a tipping point today, and the Collingwood faithful would be disappointed with the result and the win-loss.

“What I would say is they’ve got a group of guys that have been prepared to give their all. It was a day today where they lost a little bit of hope about where they were and where they’re going.”

He pointed to the VFL form as a positive and said blooding a second debutant a head of time might give some spark.

“We’ll make whatever the best decisions are for the football club going forward, those decisions will be made on our players,” Buckley said.