Nathan Buckley has opened up on a number of topics during his first morning as co-host of SEN Breakfast.
Buckley took over as Collingwood coach in 2012 after a succession plan with former mentor Mick Malthouse. His side led the 2018 Grand Final for all but the final 90 seconds of the clash, but the Pies couldn’t replicate that form in the coming years. He and the club parted ways after the Queen’s Birthday match against Melbourne in 2021, Buckley leaving on a high with a win over the eventual premiers.
After more than eight months out of the AFL landscape, the Magpies great and former coach spoke about his exit from the club he loved, the difficulties of life in the AFL’s hub and also admitted that he wasn’t sure he was the man for Collingwood when entering the 2021 season.
Read the 49-year-old’s thoughts on his time at Collingwood below, while he also revealed details on a number of interesting relationships with former co-workers.
Doubts over coaching at the start of 2021
“I was ‘umming and ahhing’ at the start of last year at whether I thought I was the best person to lead Collingwood into the next phase. When it became evident that the other side was probably thinking the same, it was an easy decision to say no.
“I couldn’t put my stake in the ground and commit for the next four years for instance, because I didn’t know whether I was exactly the right person or the right fit to keep going.
“Once I let go I was really at ease at that, within myself, and I suppose when you get a couple of weeks down the track and you know you’re still feeling pretty good about it you think, ‘Ah cool, that’s the right decision for me, which means it’s the right decision for the club’.
“The man on my shoulder isn’t there as much about being driven and being hungry towards a single outcome, and that’s the first time in 30 years it hasn’t been there.
“I’ve got to say that sometimes I kick my own ass about it because I feel like I’m lazy… So sitting in space and letting that wash over me has been difficult at times.
“But I’ve had more time with my boys to do other things and to let things float into my space that would not normally get there, and I’m looking forward to exploring that over the next couple of years.”
Leaving Collingwood
“I think that for that to happen you need to have respect on both sides and that was definitely there.
“I think the club were really respectful, and ‘Wrighty’ (Graham Wright) in particular was amazing. He was fresh eyes and had come in and recognised the need for change and had that conversation.
“Not from me (any bitterness). Obviously, the club just moves on, you don’t stay there forever, and it is humbling when you realise that the club is the thing that needs to get the most focus and attention because people come and go but the club will remain.
“That’s the way I’ve always viewed it.”
Hub life and trade period
“The hub life and the hub situation I think has exposed quite a bit, not just for Collingwood but for a lot of clubs.
“I just think it was a really difficult situation. To be away from families, to have nothing else on your mind, there was no chance to get away, it gave people more time to think about things they weren’t happy about and I think it polarised clubs.
“You either went well, and Richmond obviously went on and won that flag… There wouldn’t have been many clubs that came out of that with an optimism and a positivity about where they were going because I think they had too much time to think about what wasn’t working.
“But the trade period was difficult, and there’s no doubt that those changes in that landscape bled in 2021.”
Future
“I sit here not knowing what my future holds professionally.
“I’m really looking forward to working here at SEN and Fox, I’m not lying when I said I haven’t absorbed a whole lot in the last seven or eight months.
“I’ve got a fair bit of work to do to get back to that, and I do look forward to that.
“I do have a passion for helping people in their journeys and that’s come from my own experiences and I think I’ve been able to do that through coaching, whether that’s in my future I can’t say.
“I’m really looking forward to what I‘m doing now, I’m not projecting forward too far.”
Offers from other clubs
“There was, like immediately.
“July, August last year there were a lot of taps on the shoulder about, ‘what about this, what about that’, and I had to say hand on heart to a couple of clubs, ‘I wouldn’t be doing the right thing by you to put my hand up for this because I don’t know right now whether I’m right now in the right space to be able to give the people at your organisation and your organisation the best of myself, I need a bit of time.
“It was really easy to say that, I’m an open door, it’s fair to say I’d have a chat with anyone about anything at any time, but it needs to fit and I’m not in a mind to force things.”
Buckley’s ability to create relationships inside a footy club was seen to be one of his greatest coaching attributes, however his last trade period saw him placed in a dfficult position.
The ‘firesale’ at the end of 2020 that saw Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson and Tom Phillips depart in the trade period while Buckley was in charge was criticised by outsiders, not least Treloar, after he claimed his coach told him senior players didn’t want him there.
Buckley confirmed the two have still not made good, while also delving deep into his relationships with Phillips, Eddie McGuire (and the Do Better report) and Heritier Lumumba.
On Adam Treloar and Tom Phillips
“I’ve dropped him (Treloar) a line a couple of times. We’re still yet to speak.“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.”
On his relationship with Eddie McGuire
“My relationship with Ed has always been really strong.
“It’s been largely a professional relationship. We shared a passion for the Collingwood footy club and we were invested in trying to help it be the best it can be and contributing as best we could.
“I haven’t had a chance to sit down with Ed since I’ve moved on and he moved on. The last couple of years with covid sort of made that and I’ve made myself scarce, but we’ll get to that.”
On the Do Better report
“Every football club, every organisation in Australia, has an issue with systemic racism.
“The fact that Collingwood were prepared to put their hand up and own its poor past in it and put itself out there, I think that’s something that every organisation is doing or is in the process of doing.
“Collingwood had to own its past and its present to be able to move better into the future and I think it’s doing that.
“There’s still plenty of work to do, but there’s no organisation in Australia that is beyond reproach with that.
“There’s still a lot of work to do in that space.”
On reconciling with Heritier Lumumba
“I’d like to.
“But you can’t have someone present the way that you want them to. You’ve got to meet them where they are, and sometimes they don’t want to be met. I accept that.
“I have attempted to (contact him). ‘H’ is over in LA, he’s in a solid relationship, he’s got a young boy. I don’t know the ins and outs of how he’s gone the last four or five years in particular.
“He’s very passionate and driven about what he sees as injustice. It’s not just through his experiences in AFL, but right across society.
“What I have learned more and more, and not just in this circumstance but life in general, is that if you want to find out different perspectives, you’ve got to stay open-minded and you’ve got to be prepared to listen and learn.
“That perspective has been hard-earned for me because I’ve stepped on a lot of toes and bloodied a lot of noses with an attitude of break or break through. That was in my 20s and 30s more.
“I can definitely sit and listen a little bit better than I used to and I enjoy doing that.”
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