Buckley will soon weigh in on saga
He’s a smart man: Goldsack
COLLINGWOOD premiership hero Tyson Goldsack expects coach Nathan Buckley to soon break his silence on the Heritier Lumumba racism row.
While fallen president Eddie McGuire took the brunt of this week’s firestorm, Buckley is yet to respond to the damning findings of the leaked “Do Better” report which has rocked the Magpies.
Lumumba has repeatedly taken aim at Buckley for his defence of the club’s culture.
Goldsack, now at Port Adelaide as a development coach and on the Power’s list as a rookie, said: “I know Bucks’ head is right into the game for season 2021, but he’d have his opinions and thoughts.
“Whether he has been a part of it, it is hard to know without actually going through the document or its findings, but he is a clever man and he assesses things quite well so I’d imagine he will come out in due course.”
In a recent tweet, Lumumba asked Buckley if he still “stood by” the content of an email the coach had sent him late last year which stated “how much the club had changed”.
Goldsack, who left Collingwood at the end of 2019, said he considered he was “pretty close” to Lumumba during their time as teammates but hadn’t spoken to him for a while.
“But things have happened and things happened that I wasn’t aware were happening and that is probably what has caused the unrest is that things did happen,” he said.
Collingwood yesterday announced Magpie directors Mark Korda and Peter Murphy as interim co-presidents.
The duo will take charge of the club effective immediately following this week’s departure of McGuire.
In a statement, the Collingwood board said it would take eight weeks to decide its next president and it would consider external candidates.
The board also said the expert advisory panel recommended by the club’s report into racism would be formed as a priority, reporting directly to the board.
The club will also employ a strategic adviser to help implement “all the recommendations of the Do Better report across the organisation”.
Goldsack said he was hopeful some “good change” would come from the report.
“It has been tough, not tough to cop, but it is hard because I am sitting here from a middle-aged white male’s point of view so I don’t know, and I can’t pretend that I do know, what people go through or have been through,” he said.
“All I can say is I’d like to think I tried to make it as happy and as welcoming of a place as I could (when he was at Collingwood) but Eddie to me was always a great guy.
“He appears to have taken the brunt of it and it was sad when I watched his (resignation) presser.
“Eddie has done so much good for the club for so long and it’s in the position it is (because of him). I still have a lot of love for the club so to see him walk away is a sad moment.
“But if it is for the greater good then ... hopefully it can spur on some things in the future where. It’s hard for me to say more welcoming but it has been proven that they have done some things wrong.”