The 2018 Nathan Buckley Debate

[Mugwump]

Top four in Rd 22 is a reasonable bar to work with at this stage. If you think it is to be dismissed as “less hopeless” then you might want to clean your filter.

It isn’t “incredible achievement”, but it’s evidence that Buckley knows his profession. To use the cheap shot often used against him in the past, many other teams would line up to hire him next year in preference to their current head coach.

[Geek]

[Mugwump]

Good post, Geek, though I am not sure September coaching is really different to H&A coaching. I think it tests players’ courage even more, but the basic processes stay the same. If we do not win much in September, it’ll be a sign to me that the young squad still has growing to do, more than it being about Nathan.

Acclamation is also due to Geoff Walsh. After some admin madness with Gubby Allen, balmy et al, this old grey head has stepped in and done a brilliant job. He backed Buckley out of the review last year, and he presumably influenced the assistant coach changes. He gets little notice, but he has made a fantastic Chairman of the Football Board, and he has great gravitas and toughness. I’m proud he is at our club.

[Culprit]

Buckley has change the way he coaches and now listens and also delegates responsibility to others in accordance with the review at the end of last year. The assistant coaches deserve the plaudits as well. Those like me who bagged Buckley prior to this year opinions were correct because if we were wrong the club would not have had a review and nothing would have changed. For those standing up on a mantle saying "I told you so" also refuse to admit that they were wrong as well. Things had to change and they did and now everyone is happy as we are back winning.

[Mossi]

[Albert Parker]

^^^I really like the point acknowledging the role of Geoff Walsh. When the review was conducted, he listened to the players, and made the decision to retain Buckley. That was not how the papers were marked when he got handed them.

Credit to Bucks for taking on the feedback and loosening up his grasp on the reins. The assistant coaches have been given the leeway to do their jobs in a way that was not the case in previous seasons.

I'm glad for Bucks, his assistants, the players and us fans that the restructure has turned out the way it has. Often there are fine margins between success and failure.

[Mugwump]

[Lone Ranger]

I’ve always thought we had a great list ... good enough to be finals if not top 4 every year of Buckley’s tenure. Hence my belief that Buckley was a terrible coach.
Clearly he is stubborn but he has finally changed the game plan this year ... well done. We are now seeing what we should have seen for the last few years. So kudos for coaching well this year.

[Culprit]

[tbaker]

[tbaker]

[RudeBoy]

[Invigoration]

[swoop42]

Given some people have shown no ability whatsoever to offer constructive criticism on the coach or even the club in recent seasons and have simply been guided by nothing more than blind faith it's hilarious that these same people are now pumping out their chest on the back of our return to finals after 5 years like it was always a fait accompli when we were sitting at 5-10 in 2017.

If people are happy to deduce that this season is justification for Buckley's retention last year (I agree) and that he is the right man for the job moving forward (I now do) then I can only imagine people are able to concede also that the past 4 years were an example of a coach who still had much to learn and improve in as did the club as a whole.

Basically you can't have it both ways and decide that only this season provides "factual" evidence to the quality of Buckley's coaching and dismiss the concerns of the past as "opinion" not based in reality.

The real unsung hero as far as I'm concerned is Peter Murphy.

It was Murphy in my opinion who gave voice to the disillusioned Collingwood fan concerned about our continued poor on field performances and the professional standards of some employed by the club.

He had the standing within the community and courage to challenge McGuire and to McGuire's credit (and perhaps self preservation) he placated those concerns by allowing Murphy to conduct a thorough review of the football club.

At the end of his review and in stark contrast to those who continually parrot the club can do no wrong his findings lead to:

1. The removal of CEO Gary Pert and a proper process to find his successor (McGuire apparently just wanted to install Lethlean)
2. The expansion of our assistant coaching panel to support Buckley.
3. New list manager hired. Hine released from the role to concentrate solely on recruitment.
4. High performance manager replaced.
5. Position created for Nick Maxwell.

While it was always a wait and see approach and one we looked to replicate from the Richmond example of 12 months earlier it's fair to say the recommendations from Murphy and yes Walsh to retain Buckley are looking at present to be a spectacular success.

Still let's not pretend now everything was running at it's optimum in the preceding seasons and to me this year only reinforces mine and others frustration over it.

We have seen injuries used as an excuse for our lacklustre results of the past few seasons and yet we currently sit 3rd with an injury list far and away greater than any proceeding season. Injuries yes were a hindrance to not being a genuine premiership chance but top 8 I'm not so convinced.

Plenty of people were happy to lay excuses for the coach and club at the feet of Hine and the state of our list and yet here we are sitting 3rd with a long long injury list and with only 1 new recruit in Stephenson making a meaningful contribution to our ladder position in 2018.

Are people still questioning the ability of Hine now?

Yes young players will improve with experience and if enough collectively do it in one year then you can see real improvement from one season to the next but you lose experience along the way also whether by injury or retirement while others due to age aren't as good as they once were.

So is the improvement we have witnessed this season all down to the natural progression of young players or an individuals own desire to push themselves to greater heights or is it down to coaching, the refinements made to structures over the summer period, improved game day instruction or healthy player relationships.

With our injury list I doubt it all comes down to talent and with the real talent still remaining out on the field it's not all coaching either so I guess it's a little from column A, B, C and D.

For mine your perception of Buckley all comes down to how you've viewed our talent collective in a season in relation to the final result.

While others are free to disagree I'll always maintain our talent level was on par with the Western Bulldogs in 2016 and they were able to achieve what they did with a similar injury profile simply because of the influence of Beveridge and his ability to elevate them above themselves.

For me this is the first time under Buckley I've felt the same way, that we've maximised the potential contained within our list, we've got the right structures out on the field in place that are allowing this individual talent to shine through and this coupled with the overall coaching performance has elevated our position above what you could reasonably expect given the availability of players.

More than happy to grade Buckley an A+ for this season but fair to say it's taken longer than I naively expected when I supported the succession plan.

I'm guilty your honor of wavering about my initial instinct that Buckley had the ability to become a fine coach but just like 2009 as now I'll always voice a strong opinion if I believe it's in the best interests of the club and will do so ahead of any one individual within it.

Without people daring to question, Peter Murphy would have remained silent.

I wonder where that would have got us?

[Piethagoras' Theorem]