Nathan Buckley breaks social media silence with controversial COVID take

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has broken his social media silence with a controversial take on Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Nathan Buckley took to social media on Sunday.

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has questioned the contagiousness of Covid-19 in a bizarre social media post - his first in more than a month.

A near-record number of Victorians underwent Covid tests on Saturday (53,283), with 16 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours.

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Buckley, who parted ways with Collingwood this year after three decades of service as both a player and coach, wrote that the latest case numbers were proof the virus wasn’t as contagious as it has been made out to be.

53,283 tests yesterday in Victoria, presumably most of those from people exposed to people and places with confirmed positives

16 new positives

So, exactly how contagious is this thing again?

My logical brain is failing to comprehend.

— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) July 18, 2021

Buckley wrote: “53,283 tests yesterday in Victoria, presumably most of those from people exposed to people and places with confirmed positives 16 new positives So, exactly how contagious is this thing again? My logical brain is failing to comprehend.”

It was a view shared by Buckley’s partner, cosmetic nurse Alex Pike, who reposted the tweet on her Instagram page with the caption, “end lockdown”.

Alex Pike weighed in on Instagram.

Club captain Scott Pendlebury mused Buckley would be in for fierce blowback as a result of the tweet.

https://t.co/EVGv6BPZD8pic.twitter.com/MU4AknD8tC

— Scott Pendlebury (@SP_10) July 18, 2021

On a quite separate aspect…

I totally agree on these short sharp hard lockdowns. They seem to be quite effective.

I wonder what the long term solution is though…🤷‍♂️

— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) July 18, 2021

A raft of assumptions and inferences being returned from one observation….that is your prerogative.

With some great informed logical perspectives in there as well.

Clearly a highly discussed topic with lots of associated emotional triggering.

Be kind to each other 🙏

— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) July 18, 2021

Also chiming in, and winning Buckley’s praise, was a comment from an account named “Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson” - two of the players offloaded from the club at the end of last season despite having contracts.

“The delta variant is like a salary cap and sometimes a harsh devastating lockdown (trading A grade players) is needed to crush it and get it within controllable limits”, the reply read.

Buckley’s comments mark the third high-profile Collingwood identity to issue confounding takes about the virus.

Stephenson apologised for “ill-informed” comments about the virus he made on social media, with the North Melbourne recruit insinuating “if there’s no media then I don’t think Covid is such a big thing”.

This week, former Pies star Dane Swan posted an expletive-laden rant directed at infected persons who came to Melbourne ahead of Victoria’s latest lockdown, calling for them to be “named and shamed and jailed for life”.

Bucks and Jaidyn could’ve found common ground.

— Daniel Cherny 📰 (@DanielCherny) July 18, 2021

COVID experts Dane Swan, Jaidyn Stephenson, Scott Pendlebury and Nathan Buckley walk into a bar, you’d think the first one would tell the rest to duck

— Lily 🕊 (@lilzzzza) July 18, 2021

Originally published as Nathan Buckley breaks social media silence with controversial COVID take