Buckley's presser: Hutzpah, hubris - where we went wrong

Rd10.1998_11.1#36 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 3:59 am

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said he was "surprised" but not relieved after the Magpies' last-gasp win over Carlton on Saturday.

Collingwood trailed by 11 points deep into the last term against last year's wooden-spooners, but rallied to kick the final five goals of the game to claim a 19-point win at the MCG.

The Magpies were staring down the biggest upset of the season against the Blues, who entered the game in 18th position on the ladder, before just scraping home, but Buckley was proud of the result.

"It depends what prism you want to look at it. We thought it was a done deal, that the game was already played, and we just had to turn up to get the 4 points.

"And that's the way it would have been, if not for Eddie's comments during the week."

It was a see-sawing contest throughout the afternoon, with the Blues generally holding sway but never blowing the Pies out of the game.

"First of all, our presidents unprofessional, distracting comments - which are not in line with how we want to play - caused Stephenson, De Goey and Philips all to miss very gettable shots on goal in the first half.

"Later in the game, just when we felt we were getting back into it", Buckley said, "some clowns from the Nick's bulletin board gave away a 100m penalty and goal by saying we should smash them. I mean what can we, as a playing group, do about that? Nothing."

Although the Pies have now won their last 5 games in a row against Carlton, who sit in last position versus the Pies in 2nd, that's no reason to predict future wins, declared Buckley.

"Look, it's like this: the lower our confidence is, the better we perform. The last thing we need is to be believing that we can win the premiership. Last year was a pure fluke to be honest. Nobody was more surprised than me, except maybe [captain] Scott Pendlebury. We'd actually bet against ourselves so we were really disappointed to make the granny."

When asked what he considered the biggest factor in today's game, the Magpies coach had this to say:

"Our players spend most of the week reading every comment on Nick's, Big Footy, Facebook, Twitter and other sites, as well as listening to SEN and reading the papers, before deciding how they're going to play; whether they'll have a go or just 'phone it in' as [injured Collingwood forward] Mason [Cox] likes to say. They barely have time to attend training and are usually running around the park with their eyes glued to their smartphones.

"Ignorant and inconsiderate fans giving them a big head by saying we should beat a team that hasn't played in a Grand Final for 25 years is just counterproductive. It's not what we're about here at Collingwood."

Asked about destiny, the 2018 Coach of the Year had this to say: "I don't believe in it. I don't believe in anything really. I'm a bit of a Nihilist. Nothing I or the players do matters. It's 'Lap of the Gods' stuff mostly, with regards to the outcome. Might as well award the points based on the coin toss."

Eddie McGuire and the Collingwood board have announced that the coaching staff have their full support in the wake of the shock win.

SportsBet have Alistair Clarkson as the 8:1 favourite to replace Buckley next season.

piedys · Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 9:56 am

That is just hysterical; why no other comments on this masterpiece?!

Took me a couple of paragraphs to catch on!

Funny thing is, I'm doing the Buckley voice in my head while reading this, and most of it is very plausible.

Bravo! More! More! Roll on next week's presser! Laughing