The day new Collingwood football chief Graham Wright tore shreds off a young Nathan Buckley
New Collingwood footy boss Graham Wright will work alongside coach Nathan Buckley in 2021 – but the pair haven’t always seen eye-to-eye.
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Graham Wright will join Nathan Buckley to steer the future of Collingwood, but the first time they crossed paths was littered with abuse and profanities.
Their first encounter came in Round 12 at the Gabba in 1993, when everyone appeared to know the then Brisbane youngster would be at the Magpies the following year.
In his 2008 autobiography ‘All I can be,’ Buckley wrote he was shocked by the level of vitriol from certain Magpies that day.
The chief instigator was the man who was appointed the Magpies’ new football boss on Monday.
“The sledging started before the first bounce with Craig Kelly and Graham Wright the most vocal,” Buckley wrote.
“Wrighty was like a broken record; he kept glaring at me and snarling: ‘I f---ing’ hate you!’
“I’d never faced such a consistent and pointed attack on my character and I didn’t know how to take it.
“Just months earlier, I’d made it public knowledge that I really wanted to play for Collingwood, and here was one of their best players abusing me like I’d never been abused before.”
Buckley had averaged 25 disposals a game in his previous seven games going into the match, but the Magpies decided to throw a Gavin Brown tag on him.
That combined with the unrelenting mental barrage ensured a dirty day for the young gun who’d go on to win the first AFL Rising Star award later that year.
“We gave him one of the greatest payouts of all time. Wrighty was a champion sledger and poor Bucks was caught in the crossfire,” said Kelly, who today manages Buckley.
“We were saying: “Who the f--k do you think you are, thinking you can just walk into our club? You’re not welcome!’
“Wrighty did not let up for the whole game.”
In the book, Wright explained why went after Buckley so viciously.
“There was a fair bit of talk floating around that Nathan was going to come to Collingwood and as a playing group we knew a couple of us would have to go,” Wright said.
“Ned (Kelly) and I just let him know we weren’t happy about him wanting to come to Collingwood.
“He actually didn’t say much back.
“In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the smartest thing for us to do.
“Not long after that game, I made an off-the-cuff remark to (then football boss Graeme) ‘Gubby’ Allan that if Buckley came to Collingwood, I would leave.”
Allan flatly replied: “You’ll be leaving then, son.”
Wright didn’t leave Collingwood, at least not until his post-playing days when he joined Brisbane in an opposition analysis and recruiting role from 2004 until 2007.
He then spent 13 years at Hawthorn before arriving home at Collingwood, where he’ll be just down the corridor from his former teammate who he savagely berated the first time he laid eyes on him.
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