Adam Treloar opens up on Nathan Buckley relationship after ugly split

Adam Treloar has revealed why he still hasn’t spoken to his former Collingwood Magpies coach more than a year after his ugly trade.

Adam Treloar and Nathan Buckley will speak at some point. Photo: Getty Images

More than a year since his spectacular exit from Collingwood, Adam Treloar has still not buried the hatchet with former coach Nathan Buckley.

Treloar was the story of the 2020 trade period when the Magpies sensationally cut ties with the midfielder.

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Treloar signed with the Western Bulldogs and played in the 2021 grand final. Buckley left the Magpies mid-season after it was confirmed he would not be retained by the club, ending a decade-long tenure in the role.

He was since signed by Fox Sports as a commentator for the 2022 season.

But despite both men moving on, they are still yet to speak as Buckley revealed Treloar hadn’t returned his calls.

Speaking on an episode of AFL Daily over the weekend, Treloar said while they haven’t spoken yet, it will happen at some point.

“There definitely will be a time when we talk and it will be normal,” Treloar said. “We will probably brush over what happened, but it will be kind of, ‘How’s your life going?’ Because I know there’s been a bit happening in his life and there’s been quite a bit happening in my life.

“I just wish when I come up and when Bucks comes up to talk it wasn’t asked because there is going to be a time that we do talk because that love and care that I do have for him is always going to be there; it‘s never not going to be there.

Adam Treloar ahead of the new season. Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“Look past everything that’s happened – the trade and everything – there was a time when mentally I was really struggling and I will always appreciate the love and support and the care that he gave me. There will be a time when we talk. Hopefully when that time comes there will be no more questions because the questions are just unnecessary. I‘m not salty towards anything; I love this footy club; I love the Collingwood footy club; I appreciate my time there.

“When the trade happened, I spoke out here (Whitten Oval) for the first time, I had nothing but love and care for Bucks and it is still there, obviously, because it was such a fond period that time I spent at the footy club that I look back on. I‘m extremely grateful for being there.”

He suggested the nature of their different circumstances now was the reason they had yet to catch up.

“Number one, I don’t see him, he stayed on as coach and I got traded,” he said. “You kind of get used to seeing each other as a player-coach relationship when you’re part of a footy club. Especially going on throughout the season, it’s how it becomes. Then being traded here and not being able to see him, it’s kind of just how it works.

“It‘s funny, people have been commenting and sending me private message saying ‘get over it, move on’ — I have. I don’t hold any resentment; I don’t hold any grudges. There is nothing that I hold against anyone there. I love the footy club. I love everyone there. There’s players there that I wish all the best.

“I still find myself watching from afar half barracking for them because there is a lot of me that has a connection there with them.”

He added that there were plenty of players and coaches he still wants to reconnect with but said “you don’t get the time”, particularly after Covid.

Treloar and Ravaillion at the 2019 Brownlow. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Ravaillion and Georgie in 2021. Photo: Mark Cranitch.

Treloar’s trade drama started when his wife and netball superstar Kim Ravaillion wanted to resume her professional sporting career with the Queensland Firebirds, while the AFL star would stay in Melbourne.

AFL 360 hosts Mark Robinson and Gerard Whateley believed the midfielder would look for a move north to stay with his family, but the saga snowballed out of control.

Reports soon flooded out of Collingwood that the club was planning to pay a substantial amount of Treloar’s contract to play elsewhere and Buckley told the star his teammates wanted him gone. It was a report confirmed by Treloar, but denied by Buckley.

Before last season, Buckley revealed the pair were not on speaking terms, and he confirmed on SEN radio earlier this month it was still the case.

“I’ve dropped him a line a couple of times. We’re still yet to speak,” he said on SEN Breakfast.

“I had a coffee with Tom Phillips, he reached out and said, ‘G’day, I’ve been thinking about you a little bit’, and we sat down and had a coffee last week.

“A very similar situation. He still had a year to run on his contract and had to have those conversations with him and he moved on to Hawthorn.

“I still haven’t been able to sit down with ‘Ads’. Now that may or may not happen. I’d be up for it, but it needs to be something that he’s comfortable with as well.

“He’s got a full life, a young family, and at a new club full of football commitments.

“If and when the time is right. I’d love to connect with Ads again.”

It might end up happening on air. Photo: Michael Klein

Treloar also opened up on being apart from his family as he and Ravaillion pursue their individual athletic pursuits.

“I do miss them, but this is only a short period in our life and in the long run it’s going to be the best for us with what we want to achieve in our respective sports,” Treloar told AFL Daily. “I have struggled, of course I have, I want to be able to see them, but I just don’t underestimate how important it is to have the people I‘ve got around me.

“This wasn’t a decision that was made overnight. This was something that we spoke about for three or four months, putting a plan in place to be able to support each other and have people around to support me and support her.

“I have struggled but to be able to lean on the people that are extremely close to me and be a part of something that I‘m truly grateful of being a part of, it hasn’t been that hard. I don’t take it for granted when I get to go and see them.

It’s only a small part in our life where we can look back and say we were able to do this and really blossom and get the most out of ourselves and then enjoy the rest of our lives when we get to be back together.”