Buckley's weekly interview with Gerard Whateley in 2018

[Invigoration]

[Woods]

The key take-outs IMO occur towards the end (at the 21:25 mark)

Whately: "Broadly speaking, what do you think footy will look like in 2018?"

Buckley: "I think that the balance of offence and defence is always the fascinating thing for me and I think we’ve gone through periods where the defence or press has really challenged the offence, and then at times when the offensive structures have changed the ground looks a little bit bigger and harder to defend. I think the balance is probably as knife-edged as its ever been. I still believe that the best defences will be the best teams, but you need to be pretty good on the offensive side of the ball as well.
But I think we are in for really see-sawing battles. I think there will be a great deal of transition I would have thought - the ball’s moving quickly across the field. Having said that there’s some teams that like congestion - you know Sydney have never been one to want an open game. We don’t want an open game of footy, we want to see it lower transition and higher stoppage. It’s our willingness to impose ourselves and each team to impose their game style on the opposition and that’s where you’ll see the nuances of each team. And I think that’s what makes it so brilliant to watch because that’ll unfold before us over the first month and we’ll think that we’ve got an idea and then it’ll change again."

Buckley is not going to make many friends at the AFL (and with their employees, the umpires), nor with Chan7 and Foxtel by pursuing a congested game style of rolling stoppages.

Any doubt about how determined the AFL is in forcing teams to play a more 'televisual', free-flowing, fast transition and higher scoring game was extinguished after Rnd 1 of the AFLX. The AFL wrote to the AFLX coaches and advised (instructed?) them to loosen up their game styles. Outrageous interference.

Expect umpires to punish Collingwood's high stoppage brand of footy this year (but what else is new), and TV commentators to bemoan the ugly rolling maul . But who at Collingwood cares what they say if the game style works? Its about winning, not ratings, and I'd rather see an ugly win than a fancy loss.

Remember, the TV commentators and AFL execs are hangers-on who work for the entertainment industry, not for the sport of Aussie Rules .

[PyreneesPie]

[Jezza]

Good interview.

Always liked the way Whateley conducts himself in the media and he's one of the very few journalists I respect, so I can see why Bucks opens up more to him than with other journalists who are only interested in clickbait and sensationalist journalism.

[What'sinaname]

Another "great" interview coming up this week. Bucks will again sound intelligent and he'll say all the right things and Collingwood fans will cream their pants.

[Woods]

Buckley's interview that went to air this morning. 26 mins in length.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=182516

Includes a review of the match against the Hawks and interesting comments on Maynard's 'staging' penalty, selection potential for Mayne and Scharenberg towards the end. Some pointed questions from talkback callers too.

(Note: there are probably half a dozen stories that the media will spin off from this interview. Best to get the info from the source interview here, both for accuracy and context)

[Bunton Barfly]

Thanks for the 'heads up' on the Whateley interview(s). I, also, respect Gerard's skills to ask the right questions and draw extended responses. Gerard also seems to have refreshing insight on the game of AFL ... and if he is ever critical, beware, because he is probably correct in his assessment.

[Woods]

Here's the third installment for the year. Went to air this morning:

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=183445

[Damien]

Thanks Woods. I always forget it’s on so your link is greatly appreciated.

It’s good to have a coach who makes himself available to the media and Whateley does a good interview. Nothing to cream my pants over though.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

[Damien]

Daffy change the record. If you don’t wanna listen, don’t. I like hearing our coach on the radio talking about the washup. We got done by the flag faves and he explained why and covered many other topics. It’s becoming boring champ.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

[RudeBoy]

[Woods]

Interview No. 4 went to air this morning.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=186124

Topics covered include Buckley’s view of the club’s introduction of a post-game “savouring the win” session (an idea from Maxwell’s time at Melbourne Storm); the mid-field group and Pendlebury’s buy-in to his taking on a “legacy moment” run-with role against Carlton; Sidebottom’s sling tackle and Buckley’s acceptance of the incongruity within the rules of the game; similarly, Selwood and the ‘ducking for frees’ issue; delays caused by the score review system; Sam Murray’s Rising Star nomination, character and prospects; “who’s in the queue” for senior selection after a massive VFL win; the Pies' changeable forward line structure; the “strong brand of footy” the Pies will be taking to Adelaide this week.

EDIT: corrected GWS to Melbourne Storm

[Hm]

Thanks for the link. Interesting of the VFL team Buckley mentions Mayne first and said he was excellent. 34 possessions is excellent. The question I have. Is his performance because it was a one sided game, on the back of everyone else, or was his performance one of the reasons? Whatever it is pleasing to see that even though he has spent most of his time in the VFL still picking up his pay cheque, he is really putting that effort to be back in the seniors, hard to have that needed confidence with all the criticism the past 12 months.