SuperCoach Buckley

[piedys]

[piedys]

[Raw Hammer]

Hahahahaha, Judkins. My goodness.

True story, I trained at Collingwood one season after Judkins invited me down.

I ultimately wasn’t drafted. Boo hoo hoo. Poor me.

Without disparaging the players that were drafted to Pieland instead of me, let’s just say they were as beige as they come and lasted 2-3 seasons. If Judkins had any talent-spotting wisdom, I would have helped this club win at least one of those 2002-03 flags.

Bitter much? Me? No. Of course not.

[piedys]

[PyreneesPie]

[Raw Hammer]

Me bitter? No, not all! Hahaha! Their loss (and mine, I mean, it meant I had to go get a real job).

Maybe I can tell the story at a Nick’s catch up after our next premiership! Hahahaha. Let’s just say, after my experience, it’s no wonder we didn’t win a flag for so long during the ‘90s and 2000s. Goodness gracious me what a sh!tshow that place that was before Eddie took over. To think I followed and supported that club with the belief of premierships nearly every year as a kid post-1990, and then to actually be there, laced up at Vic Park under the eye of Tony Shaw, and realise, WTF? Wait, THIS is a professionally run AFL team?

[piedys]

[Raw Hammer]

Look, I’m probably talking it up (or down?) too much. Not as ‘juicy’ as my words might imply. Just my general observations from my short stint there as an ‘outsider’ looking in (albeit from the inside).

I am being serious though when I say that during my brief experience, there was no way this club was doing any damage under that particular regime if the way I was trained and the facilities available to the players was anything to go by. I have such a vivid memory of Buckley and Brown (and hulking Mick Gayfer as trainer) in the gym...and by gym, I mean well-worn machines and rusted weights that you’d be embarrassed to use in your own home garage set up. I mean, simply putrid.

I remember talking to my father afterwards, a mad Collingwood man, and basically saying, “Um, dad, the sheet has kinda been pulled away from the magic that was our beloved Magpies, and the reveal wasn’t good.” I remember it being a little weird following the Pies for the next year or so after that, after the realisation that Collingwood was essentially a high profile ‘amateur-esque’ club with shambolic facilities and outdated training philosophies masquerading as a genuine professional AFL entity. No wonder Eddie took over when he did. He clearly saw what I saw. As much as he cops heat (yes, from me included), he most definitely saved that club when he hired Mick and left Vic Park. You have NO IDEA how shambolic that place was in the late ‘90s / early 2000s. Little wonder we didn’t play finals from 1994 to 2002.

Now, in Collingwood’s defence, I can’t really judge in comparison to other clubs at the time. Were they as bad as ours? Possibly. I don’t know. But gee whiz, we’re talking about Collingwood, Nathan Buckley, the late ‘90s. No excuse for that level of out-dated-ness and mediocrity.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

I think we got one more year before our window starts seriously closing, take it how you will...

[K]

[shawthing]

[Raw Hammer]

Buckley’s coaching contract ends after 2044?

[eddiesmith]

Yeah at 80 years of age, Eddie finally retires, we get a new president, new coach and go on to win the next 5 premierships

Buckley’s brigade shouts from their nursing home beds we won because of Buckley...

[Raw Hammer]

He did lay the foundation.

[Sicks Bux]

I'm not a Bucks hater but I would've preferred it if we'd kept Justin Longmuir and made him head coach. I reckon he had a lot to do with us making the GF and prelim. Even before that I rated him and was stoked when we got him to the club.