Bucks keen to stay on
But coach says he’ll wait for talks with club
NATHAN Buckley says he wants to continue coaching Collingwood beyond this year but will wait until the back half of the season to formally discuss his future.
The 1-5 Magpies have made a poor start to the season and will attempt to revive their slim finals hopes in a must-win clash against Gold Coast at the MCG on Saturday.
Collingwood’s stuttering start has ramped up speculation about Buckley’s future, but the out-of-contract senior coach said he had no plans to vacate the top job just yet.
“Do I want to continue? The short answer is yes,” Buckley said.
“Do I want to coach? Yes. (Beyond this year?) Yes. (At this club?) Yes.
“But as we have been really consistent with, and there still comes questions with it, we will have that conversation in the back half of the year.
“Regardless of what I think I want to do for Nathan Buckley, the only thing that matters is what is best for the Collingwood footy club.
“Every day that I am here, our performances or otherwise or our growth or otherwise, the connection of the playing group or otherwise, the environment of the football department is going to be part of determining whether I am the best person to be at the helm and be the senior coach.” Buckley said he agreed with new president Mark Korda’s view that the team should still aspire to make finals despite a move to “regenerate” the list at the end of last season.
Buckley’s future was under the spotlight when the Magpies made a hasty exit from the finals in 2013 and even more so after three years out of the top eight in 2017.
Throughout that period the Magpies had four different football managers (Geoff Walsh, Neil Balme, Rodney Eade and Graeme Allen), undermining the stability of the football department.
“When I look back, they were hard yards,” Buckley said.
“I don’t know if ‘enjoying’ it was the word on reflection. ‘Enduring’ it was definitely the way.”
Buckley said the club was in a much stronger position this year, despite recent controversies surrounding the Do Better report, the resignation of president Eddie Mcguire and the handling of Adam Treloar’s departure.
“We have made aggressive moves with our list to regenerate on the go and that’s not to cap anything we are capable of in this season,” he said.
“But we are in the business of staying as competitive as we can and contending as often as we possibly can and we are not giving up on 2021 in that regard.”