Nathan Buckley says playing list sizes should be cut if coaches and football staff lose their jobs

Should playing list sizes be cut from 2021 because of the financial impact of the coronavirus? Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says yes but only if clubs are forced to cut coaches. Here’s why.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says playing list sizes need to be cut if the number of coaches and football staff is reduced from 2021.

Clubs will need to slash their soft cap by as much as $3 million in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, meaning part-time coaches and other football department staff could lose their jobs.

With players already accepting a pay cut this year, the salary cap will also likely be affected from next season, with the Herald Sun reporting on Wednesday the AFLPA has told players it is prepared to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement for 2021-22.

Playing list sizes could be cut from next year but AFLPA boss Paul Marsh has warned clubs will need more players, not less given players could be asked to play more games in a short period.

Buckley believes if coaches and staff lose their jobs or are forced to take a pay cut, then playing list sizes should be trimmed in addition to a reduced salary cap.

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Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley speaks to his players during the Round 1 clash against the Bulldogs. Picture: Michael Klein

“I think whatever percentage – say you had to drop 20 per cent of your staff for instance and they’re potentially on 30 per cent less pay, so that gets you to where you need to get to, I think the playing list needs to drop pretty much pro rata and the salary cap should need to drop pro rata as well,” he said.

“I think the ratios of people – staff or coaching to players is something I would advocate stays relatively even because I think the mix has been pretty good at the moment.

“If you had less staff with the same playing lists, I think it’s a detriment to both staff and players, so I’d want to keep that ratio pretty similar if that’s what has to happen.”

Buckley said the AFL currently had the right mix of coaches and football staff to players to ensure every player is receiving the same opportunities to learn and develop their football, while each coach and staff member has proved their worth.

But with the financial implications of the coronavirus pandemic to leave the league and clubs with no choice but to slash costs, a similar ratio of players to staff and coaches needs to be maintained so the quality of football isn’t hurt.

Buckley speaks to Robert Harvey at Magpies training. Picture: Michael Klein

“If we could keep all our people, you’d just chop salaries off at whatever perctenage you need to cut and then get that done. That’s probably the starting point and then we work from what’s practical beyond that,” Buckley said on the Working Through It podcast.

“That may not be possible to actually execute but what it does do, you need to operate in a lean manner but you still need to provide the right environment for your people – players mainly but also for staff – to optimise their output, optimise their contribution to your environment.

“There’s a certain level of investment you need to be able to put into your people and therefore into your product to continue to grow or to innovate and to develop and if you go below that, you’re going to hurt the product because you’re going to hurt the environment, because you’re going to hurt the people.

“We’ve just come out of a couple of years where nearly every person in our environment has contributed positively in some shape or form.

“It can’t stay like that, we know that, but we’ll be doing everything we can to keep as many of the people as we can and to invest back into our programs as much as we possibly can given the economic constraints that are coming.”

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Originally published as Nathan Buckley says playing list sizes should be cut if coaches and football staff lose their jobs