Nathan Buckley addresses Collingwood future after Gold Coast loss

In front of their lowest home crowd at the MCG in over five seasons, Nathan Buckley has been forced to address his future as the head coach of the Collingwood Football Club. 

With a number of Suns players running out onto the MCG for the first time in their career, Gold Coast ran out 24-point winners on Saturday afternoon. 

It leaves Collingwood 1-6 to start their season when many assumed they would be finals bound yet again. 

It makes it the Magpies’ worst start to the season since 2005 and places further pressure at the feet of Buckley. 

MORE: West Coast coach Adam Simpson slammed for calling players ‘weak’ after Geelong thrashing

Concerningly, it also appears fans are turning away from Collingwood, with the crowd of 24,397 the second-lowest for a Pies game at the MCG since 1988.

The Suns were inspired in what is set to be their only time playing at the MCG in 2021 (unless of course the top eight comes calling). 

They took 48 more marks than the Magpies (146-98) and made the most of their scoring opportunities by kicking 12.7. Collingwood finished with an inaccurate 7.13. 

Touk Miller and Brandon Ellis led the way for the Suns, racking up 34 and 35 disposals respectively. 25-year-old Josh Corbett finished with four goals for the afternoon. 

The result is the last thing the Pies needed after they were in the headlines all week. 

Buckley was forced to defend his position midweek, saying he wanted to continue as coach. 

While the club was in the middle of the ‘prisonbar’ saga with Port Adelaide considering legal action against the Pies to wear their classic strip against the Crows next week. 

Speaking after the Suns loss, Buckley spoke about his position, his tactics and the apparent “disconnect” in the Magpies’ leadership.

“It’s the coach’s role to prepare the team to be connected and play efficient team football,” Buckley said in his post-match press conference.

“We’ll continue to try and find the right balance. Too many young guys who haven’t had the experience under their belt to play at the level is not going to be a net positive for us. 

“We’re throwing our young blokes to the wolves and not supporting them enought. We need to give them a bit more to build off. 

“The commentary around there being a disconnect in the leadership of the football club in regards to my tenure, go back and listen to the interviews…we’re really clear on the timelines.

“You’ve already got the answers to your questions on that.”

Buckley also lamented the fact that ‘old news’ continually gets brought up in the media cycle around Collingwood, such is the stature of the club. 

And while he refused to use that as an excuse for their start to the season, he admits that if they were winning games it would be a very different media environment. 

He also suggested that as a result, many looking in on Collingwood have much higher expectations than those actually within the club.

‘I’ve been really open and transparent about where we’re at,” Buckley said.

“When I sit in here, I don’t think I sugarcoat things. I’m speaking to our supporters, people who are hurting as much as anyone.

“There’s very little here we’re not speaking about in a playing or club sense. We expect to be performing better and that expectation should be there for our supporters and people who love the club.

“There is an unrealistic expectation and there’s an heavy focus on the club, because we’ve given you storylines and you’ve (media) run with them. 

“But that’s been the same at this place since day dot.

“We expected to perform better today and win, we knew we were coming up against a side playing pretty good footy.

“The general expectation on us has been a lot greater than our capacity. But it doesn’t mean we dont want to be doing better.”

On the performance against Gold Coast, Buckley lamented his side’s lack of energy in a match he knows they shouldn’t have been favourites for.

‘We thought we could be better than we are at the moment,” Buckley said on Collingwood’s form this season.

“I think we’ve been favourites for our last four games, I don’t know on what basis. 

“Gold Coast were really good last week and we saw that today. 

“We built our DNA on defending well and our offence has been an area of improvement, but focusing on that we’ve maybe lost our DNA of defending the ground really well. 

“They were able to move the ball through us a lot easier than we would have liked. 

“We all looked like we lacked a bit of zip today.

“We didn’t work hard enough in that first half and we couldn’t get the game on our terms.”

Collingwood have a whole week before they look to arrest their slide with a Saturday afternoon match up against the winless North Melbourne.