Mick v Mr Buckley

SUPERFOOTY

THE irony of Sunday's master versus apprentice showdown is that Nathan Buckley doesn't really have anything to prove.
Actions spoke louder than words in Round 1, as Buckley's rejigged Magpies showed they were very much in lockstep with their second-year coach.

Collingwood v Carlton Sunday, April 7 3.20pm MCG 7mate / Fox Sports Weather: Min 15 Max 28 Chance of rain 5% Wind 15k Betting: Collingwood $1.37 Carlton $3.05

It was a mighty win, given they won with four of the club's six best midfielders sidelined and at times just with one rotation in the second half.
You just don't win against those odds in modern football.
This is very much his playing list after a year in which some wondered if the Malthouse influence was a hindrance to Buckley's mission.
Yet the Mick v Bucks theme will still be a key focus this week, mainly because Collingwood is still filthy at what it sees as Malthouse chipping away and undermining Buckley's authority in his last two years at the club.
It started in February 2010, when he kick-started two years of speculation about the succession plan by saying Buckley was not yet ready to coach Collingwood.
Back then his anger over signing the deal to become a coaching director in 2012 was either hidden or not evident.
''If I wasn't happy (with the contract), I wouldn't have signed it,'' he told the Herald Sun on February 6, 2010.
Collingwood's anger at Malthouse finally bubbled over early in Buckley's first season in 2012, when his criticism of Collingwood's game plan saw McGuire say the former coach ''would not have a friend at Collingwood today''.
Yet it was the more subtle actions that would frustrate and bemuse many at the Westpac Centre, and actually confirm to them Buckley had the temperament for the main job.
There are many myths and legends around Malthouse's treatment of Buckley, but enough of them must be true given the sheer number of stories that came from the club in that period.
To put it bluntly, Malthouse made it evident that he was boss, and Buckley was very much the work experience kid.
Like using team meetings to assert his authority, urging Bucks to do things like ''get the lights'' before a presentation before the team, pointedly asking menial tasks of the man who would one day be senior coach.
Or in pre-season training sessions when AFL umpires helped out, cutting short conversations because he had to ''go and see what Bucks was doing'' with his players. As in go and fix what Bucks was most likely buggering up.
Those close to the action say Buckley's conduct was impeccable, holding his tongue and calmly serving out his time under his former coach.
In the coaches box, he resembled an Easter Island statue, determined to show little emotion yet still help execute Malthouse's game plan to the letter.
In one of Malthouse's last games - the West Coast final during the failed premiership run of 2011 - he threw up a suggestion about shoring up the defence that was savagely torched by Malthouse as not the Collingwood way.
How it affected Buckley - fury, frustration, bitterness - is not known because even when Malthouse smashed his game plan he defused the situation with grace and wit.
They must have been incredibly confusing and harrowing times, especially if senior players did suggest a player petition to retain Malthouse in July 2011, as he describes in detail in daughter Christi's recent biography.
Malthouse has his own issues with Collingwood, seemingly believing the Magpies ambushed him during a difficult period in his life and made him sign a succession plan.
Yet Collingwood's anger back at Malthouse is real, even if publicly the club will toe the party line about its most recent premiership coach.