AFL 2020: Nathan Buckley, Eddie McGuire at centre of Collingwood spiral

Collingwood is a club under the pump on and off the field after a disastrous final week in Perth which has turned the team into a laughing stock.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Collingwood is a club under the pump on and off the field after a disastrous final week in Perth which culminated in a miserable loss to the lowly Dockers on Sunday.

President Eddie McGuire and coach Nathan Buckley have undoubtedly had a destabilising impact on their players with a series of off-field blunders at a time when the club is already pushing through the most turbulent season in the history of the sport.

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Buckley said his biosecurity protocol breach this week where he admitted to playing a tennis match with Aussie tennis great Alicia Molik didn’t help his team as Fremantle sprung a 12-point upset at Optus Stadium.

The Pies are flying to Brisbane to face the Swans at the Gabba on Thursday night a team that is suddenly on the doorstep of crisis — slipping outside the top eight just weeks after being declared among the premiership favourites with an impressive win over Geelong.

Critics have come hard for Buckley and McGuire after the president last week declared players and officials that breach the league’s coronavirus protocols should “go home”.

Buckley declared after his team’s loss on Sunday that he would be paying the $25,000 fine the club received for his breach.

However, it did not do enough to ward off the outcry from commentators across the game.

Most were happy to poke fun at the Pies coach and his double fault on the tennis court.

“Game, set, match to Freo, but the Pies tried to take it to a tie-breaker,” sports writer Alex Fair posted on Twitter.

Veteran sports columnist Ron Reed posted on Twitter: “Not a great weekend for Bucks but if he needs to find a new gig Nick Kyrgios has vacated a spot at the US Open.”

RELATED: Nathan Buckley told to stand down over protocol breach

Man down.

The ABC’s Richard Hinds suggested the club’s on-field performance was directly related to the problems at the top.

“Collingwood rotting like a fish,” Hinds posted on Twitter.

Sports reporter Mark Gottlieb wrote on Twitter: “This has been a brilliant performance from the Dockers. Another frustrating display from Collingwood. The Pies are just not a good team”.

The Geelong Advertiser’s Alex Oates posted: “The move to Queensland can’t come quick enough for @CollingwoodFC. Insipid tonight.”

Buckley still had his sense of humour when speaking about his stuff up for the first time after the defeat.

“I just had a really expensive game of tennis during the week,” Buckley said.

“We all understand there were only a handful of COVID cases currently in WA and the health risk isn’t a concern but I had the responsibility to adhere to the rules and regulations of the AFL and in 2020 hub regulations are part of the rules and regulations.

“Sando (assistant coach Brenton Sanderson) and I have copped a fair fine for that but we move quickly to the game, we didn’t perform tonight and we’ve got work to do.

“Looking back isn’t going to help us, we’ve got to get going.”

Buckley said earlier in the press conference: “You don’t need the extra attention especially when it’s away from your primary endeavour which is to be as good as a football team can be.

“We let the club down in that regard by a miscommunication and not being diligent enough with our understanding of what we could and couldn’t do.

“As soon as we came back into the team environment, we had a few conversations and realised we needed to address it.

Buckley made McGuire look like a damn fool after his sweeping comment for the AFL to take serious disciplinary action against players, family members and staff that breach the bubble rules.

Fremantle didn’t wake up until the second quarter.

“I think the people who breach the protocols should be fined personally, to be honest,” McGuire said.

“You can get to the clubs in due course, I think the AFL’s set it out, but I think it’s got to be a personal fine.

“I think the point Gill McLachlan made during the week is 100 per cent right — we make a rule to keep the game going. From here until the Grand Final, there’s still about $250 million worth to be left on the table if this ends. It’d be a disaster, imagine if we don’t get to finish off the finals series now.

“That rule book is not how do we get around every rule, that’s the rule book you live by. And if you don’t like it, we’ll arrange for you to go home. I think that’s fair and reasonable.”

Buckley and assistant coach Brenton Sanderson played tennis with two people from outside of Collingwood’s isolation bubble, one being former tennis star Molik.

The club self-reported the breach which resulted in a $50,000 fine being handed down by the AFL, with $25,000 suspended. It became the fifth breach by a Victorian club.

Buckley came under fire on Sunday morning when his breach and the subsequent club fine was brought up on Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show.

Host Tony Jones appeared to take a shot at Buckley for failing to live up to his own standards after putting “himself on a pedestal of social consciousness or social commentary”.

Reporter Damian Barrett said Buckley should have stood himself down for the Dockers match.

“I honestly believe he should consider standing down from coaching his team tonight against the Dockers in Perth,” Barrett said.

“He’s been quarantined away from the football club anyway while he’s dealing with a test that had to be taken because he played with someone outside of the confines of his football club.

“You line up the transgression with what his own president Eddie McGuire said, basically on the day of the infringement when it came to Buckley and Sanderson playing tennis. This is Eddie McGuire on Fox Footy Friday night, having a view on what should happen to people within the AFL system who transgress in such a manner.”