Nathan Buckley to learn future this week as case is made to re-appoint Pies coach
AFTER six seasons at the Collingwood helm and with a plethora of problems still to be dealt with, tomorrow is likely to be D-Day for Nathan Buckley. Robbo looks at what could happen.
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WHY should Nathan Buckley be reappointed?
We know why he shouldn’t — today, Buckley stands at the lowest point of his career.
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Only eight wins and a draw in his sixth season as coach of Collingwood. That’s six successive seasons of dwindling success.
If his name was Mark Neeld, or Scott Watters, or Matthew Knights, he probably would have been sacked already. Even Rodney Eade didn’t last three years at Gold Coast.
When, or if, Eddie McGuire announces a new deal for Buckley, the first question he will be asked is why.
What has Buckley done to demand an extension? Why should he survive an unprecedented four successive seasons of missing finals?
Collingwood’s board meets tomorrow and it’s more likely than not the decision on Buckley’s future will be made there and then.
The intrigue surrounding the decision centres on whether this is a McGuire decision, a board decision or football boss Geoff Walsh’s decision, because Walsh has run the football department review.
The review has been bank-vault tight in terms of leaked information.
It’s been reported but not confirmed Buckley’s assistant coaches — Scott Burns, Robert Harvey, Tarkyn Lockyer, Anthony Rocca and Jared Rivers — have been “encouraged” to look elsewhere although they may keep their jobs, and that Brenton Sanderson and Brad Gotch are safe for next year.
The key will be how Walsh judges Buckley the coach on the three central aspects: performance, strategy and culture/leadership.
One thing we know is where the players stand.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’s the right person to coach this club, not just next year, but for a couple of years,” skipper Scott Pendlebury said last week.
Peers support Buckley. Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said Buckley should be reappointed, He raised his own position last year, when the Tigers supported him into 2017 after a mediocre 2016.
Of course, the proviso was that major changes were made around Hardwick. In came Blake Caracella, Justin Leppitsch and Neil Balme. That could be Collingwood’s blueprint with Buckley — back the general, change the lieutenants.
Grant Thomas says Buckley should be reappointed, but believes Buckley has lacked a mentor figure in recent seasons.
“I would 100 per cent re-appoint Nathan,” Thomas said.
“Unquestionably Nathan Buckley is a better coach today than what he was six years ago. It’s stupidity to argue against that. He shows a lot of the great qualities of great leaders.
“But since Neil Balme left and Rodney Eade left as his assistant, I think Bucks has felt like he has had to make all the decisions himself and I’m not sure he’s got the strength around him to challenge him and to give him an alternative view. And because of that he seems to be a little one-dimensional and a little bit stubborn.
“I would suggest Nathan Buckley grew more in his first three years with those guys around him than he has in the past three. That’s critical for a young coach, who is still learning the game, make no mistake, because the game is not about just footy. It’s about leading an organisation, driving cultural change, implementing leadership. It’s about spirit and morale .. that’s what a club is about.
“Spirit and morale underpin effort and performance. If you don’t get spirit and morale right, you are p-----g into the wind.”
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Buckley, to Thomas’s mind, has been “far too heavily focused on strategy and tactics ... I don’t think Bucks gives enough weighting to culture, attitude and those sorts of things”.
It is a product of Buckley being a champion player, the former St Kilda coach said.
Because Buckley was so driven as a player, he has projected that expectation on his players, believing he simply had to add strategy to attitude.
“It’s not going to happen because unless you’re a Nathan Buckley who turned up to play every time he played, it’s fanciful,” he said
“It’s a mistake great players make when they start coaching and that’s why they need that mentoring around them to diversify their thinking a little bit.”
There’s contrasting thinking on the decision facing Collingwood.
One, Collingwood should first decide if Buckley is the coach and, only if the answer is no, start to look for a replacement.
Second, line Buckley up against all other possible candidates.
The popular view is McGuire likes a “name” coach. It’s McGuire’s mantra: Big is best and best is only for Collingwood.
Alastair Clarkson is staying at Hawthorn, John Longmire the same at Sydney and on Thursday, hand on heart and amid growing speculation he would be at the Pies next year, Paul Roos said it wouldn’t be happening.
Thomas’s view is why take a punt on potentially finding the next Luke Beveridge or Don Pyke.
“That’s throwing a dart and hoping like hell he’s better than Nathan,” he said. “I think Nathan could be a 20-year coach. Unless someone else is compelling, why would you make that decision when you can show solidarity?
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“Look, the core ingredients are there. The cake is not baked yet and it might need a little bit more sugar or a little bit more spice, but it’s going to be a great cake in the end.”
One question asked about Buckley is this: Why, when he can he describe so eloquently how football should and is played, does his team keeps losing?
Buckley has said Collingwood is a “grunt” team, but the critics say he fails defensively, his forward line is dysfunctional and the midfield has lacked skill and penetration.
Buckley has changed his strategy mid-season twice in the past two years, this year becoming a more corridor team after seven rounds.
Former Collingwood player Mick McGuane sees all the failures, yet also strongly argues Buckley should be reappointed.
It’s been asked, often in jest, if Buckley has been unlucky with injuries for six years — and McGuane believes he has.
He says inaccuracy and the unavailability of Daniel Wells in the early part of the season killed the year.
“People say it’s about win-loss, but I don’t think it’s as cut and dried,’’ McGuane said.
“I look and drill deeper. I’m big on who’s not playing at the time when you do lose.”
McGuane sees two problems: Personnel and defensive mechanisms and credits Buckley for changing the game plan after Collingwood’s loss to Carlton in Round 7.
“It’s widely recognised there are players are in that 22 not because of their elite skills, maybe more for the competitiveness,’’ McGuane said.
“Some players have been getting games out of necessity and have they lived up to their end of the bargain? I question if they’re good enough for AFL footy. But you can only pick who you’ve got.’’
So, according to McGuane, the list lacks depth and smarts. The strategy also lacks the right balance between quick and slow ball movement and defending those two styles on turnover.
“The Adelaide half (Round 19) was exceptional,” McGuane said. “It was evident they played a patient build-up game, didn’t want to bite off more than they can chew, went for obvious and simple options to maintain possessions, which is a form of defence, but in the second half, look at the options they took, particularly centre-forward. They went back to impulsive, distinctive football which created turnovers and Adelaide fed off that.’’
Asked if Buckley was tactically strong, could get better or was poor, McGuane said: “Bucks knows the game inside out ... so getting better.”
“He’s across the game really well but, in saying that, it keeps coming back to personnel. I know there was indecision last year in the first eight rounds with a full 18-ground press. They went to single coverage after that, I reckon, and that’s because there were players not up to it.”
“I think he’s got to be decisive on how he wants to set up the ground defensively because at the moment, on the back of poor skill in offence, their defensive mechanism isn’t standing up. If there’s one area to get better at, the defensive mechanism has to improve.’’
But why two changes of gamestyle in consecutive years?
“That’s a valid question and he’s the only one who can answer that,” McGuane said. “Sometimes when you coach footy you tailor your style week-to-week depending on the opposition, be it fast ball, corridor, inside v outside, kick to handball ratio.
“Right now he’s gone with a philosophy based on players introduced and those players haven’t been able to maintain that standard of play, so changes get made, not only to personnel but also to style.’’
It was evident against Port Adelaide last week. The Pies’ plan was slow ball, maintain the ball, take early oomph out of Port, who had been hammered the week before by Adelaide.
“After the event, you would say we controlled the footy a lot,” McGuane said. “We wasted that chance because our message was taken literally, that we went to the point of going too slow. Two seconds later and we miss the option, we miss the chance. It comes back to decision-making.’’
Personnel. Strategy. Communication. Culture. Leadership. Performance. Consistency. Win-loss. After six seasons, there’s a bundle of problems to be dealt with.
People keep saying Buckley is a better coach now than when he started and that’s true.
Now McGuire will decide if the improved, but still not winning, Buckley is the man for Collingwood.
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