Blowtorch must be applied to all levels of Collingwood, not just Nathan Buckley
Pressure intensified following a listless effort against Gold Coast, but further scrutiny may be awaiting Collingwood soon. And it could force a change of plans.
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This wasn’t the response Nathan Buckley would have wanted just days after the under-pressure Collingwood coach staked his first public claim to keeping his job beyond 2021.
The Magpies crashed to their worst start to a season since 2005 – when Buckley was still club captain – after a listless, uninspiring performance against Gold Coast at the MCG, leaving the club 17th with only one win from seven matches.
The pressure on the coach – who is out of contract at season’s end after 10 seasons in the role – was already intense leading into the clash with the young Suns.
It was positively heated after yet another underwhelming performance, the club’s fifth consecutive loss that has shocked the club and frustrated the fans.
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With Buckley and Collingwood officials maintaining they won’t budge on a pre-season commitment to hold off on discussing the coach’s future until the back end of the season, the one certainty is that he can ill afford too many more bad losses like this one.
While club insiders insist there is no mood for immediate change, the pressure on him and the club would almost go nuclear if they lose to bottom of the table North Melbourne next Saturday.
The cold, stark reality is that this isn’t just about Buckley, who has been one of the most important figures in Collingwood’s modern history.
The blowtorch must be applied just as fiercely on all levels of the club, from the board right through to a playing list that fell one kick short of a premiership three years ago; made a preliminary final the year after and took West Coast’s scalp in an elimination final last year.
It’s been nothing short of an annus horribilis for the Magpies since the end of last year.
So much of what has occurred since that inspirational elimination final win last October has been nothing short of a shemozzle.
Forget the ‘Dirty’ Pies who orchestrated that win over the Eagles; everything since has been murkier than the waters of the Yarra River that lap the edge of the club’s Olympic Park base.
And while he has to take some serious responsibility, it’s not all Buckley’s fault.
There was the damning salary cap squeeze that led to an embarrassing trade period and the botched PR exercise in selling it to the angry fans.
That cost the club four players including Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson, and cut deeply into the depth of the playing list.
Lucrative new deals for Jordan De Goey and Brodie Grundy have also put the heat back on the club, given their output so far in 2021, while Darcy Moore’s confidence appears to have been shaken in the ‘back or forward’ conundrum that still hasn’t been finalised.
On a broader level, there was the failure to release the ‘Do Better’ report in what was found to be a history of “systemic racism” at the club, with the report being leaked to the Herald Sun.
That led to the departure of long-time president Eddie McGuire, which left a gulf of two months where the club had interim co-president in Mark Korda and Peter Murphy before the former was anointed a few weeks ago.
The prospect of a board challenge remains a strong chance with a number of club powerbrokers still seeing former Channel 9 boss Jeff Browne as a potential president.
Korda suggested recently the club still expected to play finals this season, even though his coach said on Saturday night the change in profile of the club’s list had been significant.
There is a lot to play out for Collingwood in 2021, and it’s not solely about the coach, even though the heat on him ramped up on Saturday night.
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Originally published as Blowtorch must be applied to all levels of Collingwood, not just Nathan Buckley
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