AFL grand final 2023: Nathan Buckley recounts emotional visit to Collingwood changerooms
Nathan Buckley didn’t want to ‘cheat’ his way into premiership celebrations and he didn’t have a pass to the changerooms either. So how did an emotional Bucks get in and what did he get up to?
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Nathan Buckley was “tremendously emotional” as he hid away in the corner of the Collingwood changerooms following Saturday’s grand final triumph.
As a champion player, Buckley played in two losing grand finals and coached the heartbreaking 2018 loss to West Coast.
The club great wasn’t planning on heading down to the rooms after the game but felt a pull there and caught up with about 10 players.
Buckley coached 16 of the 23 players who played for Collingwood on Saturday before his departure from the club in 2021.
He didn’t have a pass to get into the rooms but had known security from his time as coach and snuck in to sit in the corner and soak in the moment.
“I didn’t want to be there, I just wanted to be a fly on the wall so I got in the corner and out of everyone’s way and just spent five minutes there observing it and then got out,” he said on SEN.
“I didn’t think that that was going to happen. I just wanted to be down there to see a couple of the players.
“I got one step in and took two steps to the left, there is a corner there that nobody really knows is there.
“I just wanted to sit and absorb. It is a selfish part of me, I wanted to be part of it but I didn’t really want to cheat my way into it in many ways.”
Buckley posed for a photo with Scott Pendlebury and shared a moment with former teammate Anthony Rocca, who told him the Pies had “got one back”.
The Collingwood great said he was sobbing when the final siren sounded to end the game then walked through the sea of jubilant Pies fans to a post-match function and “was just another Collingwood nuffie”.
“I was tremendously emotional immediately after with a couple of my old teammates and a couple of players I have coached,” he said.
“I have got a lot of gratitude for my career. I still have a little bit of ‘what ifs’ there but I was rapt to see some of the boys that I have coached be rewarded and take that next step.”
Buckley, who coached a narrow preliminary final loss in 2019 as well as the 2018 grand final, said he was proud the club and coach Craig McRae built on the foundations he laid.
“The club right now in 2023 and right now in September have been able to do it so they deserve all the credit,” he said.
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Originally published as AFL grand final 2023: Nathan Buckley recounts emotional visit to Collingwood changerooms
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