Has Nathan Buckley Taught Collingwood To Accept Mediocrity?

ROAR - Patrick McGeoch

The Magpies have officially backed Nathan Buckley in for another two seasons, and it doesn’t seem like this will be too unpopular a decision when viewed by media and the Collingwood faithful alike, following only two losses in Collingwood’s last seven starts.
Talkback radio in recent weeks has been flooded with common themes: “the boys are playing for Buckley”, “the players are buying in”, or “the effort is there”.
There seemed a perception he had done enough to secure an extension weeks before the decision was officially made.
It would be interesting to see whether these same people would have defined a 9-1-12 scoreline for Collingwood as success at the beginning of the year.
Buckley may yet prove he can coach, but would anyone else have enjoyed so many chances? After four years of missing finals, have Pies supporters just learnt to be satisfied with mediocrity?
Extracting effort from a playing group is a minimum requirement for a coach. All year the Pies have fought through games, losing only one by over 30 points.
Eddie McGuire recently said, “The only time that you sack a coach is if you’ve lost the players completely or there is something untoward that needs to be addressed.”
After a rocky start, it’s clear that he has the buy in of this current list. Tick for Buckley.
But at what point does it become reasonable to expect effort to translate to wins? Many fallen coaches can boast an ability to extract effort from their group. That doesn’t mean you are getting the best out of them.
It’s also the job of a coach to nurture talent to enhance the natural growth of a group. Collingwood has been to five drafts since Buckley took over, including seven first round picks (four in the top 10). Yet from last year’s best and fairest top ten, only Brodie Grundy and Josh Smith were drafted by Buckley – and Smith was a mature-age rookie.
Of the rest, Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Jarryd Blair were all established by the time Buckley arrived, while Adam Treloar, Levi Greenwood, Taylor Adams, Jeremy Howe and Jack Crisp were traded in.
The impact of trading to build a list is that you always pay a premium on the trade table and in the salary cap, a model best suited for teams that already have a core group of homegrown stars they can complement. Bringing in so many mature players suggests issues with recruitment, development and relationship building.
In attack this year, Collingwood found themselves in too many situations where they led contested possessions, clearances, and inside 50s, yet lost the game.
This was attributed to poor kicking for goal, poor kicking inside 50, slow ball movement by ‘crabbing sideways’, and a lack of cohesion within the team generally. It’s reasonable to expect that once these issues are identified, a coach must be able to address them. Yet there was no evidence of improvement until the burden of expectation was removed in the final rounds.
Implementing a defensive game style that suits the list at your disposal and is also competitive should be key to a coach’s survival. In Round 3, 2016, Pies fans watched in horror as St Kilda broke through a frail defensive press to walk in goal after goal. In Round 19 this year, Pies fans watched in horror as Adelaide broke through the same frail defensive press to reel in a 50-point deficit.
Collingwood cannot stop teams moving the ball, and they get beaten easily by sides that can play keepings off (they have lost ten of their past 11 against Hawthorn) or move the ball quickly (two of their poorer losses this year came to faced paced Bombers).
Buckley has failed to correct it, and opposition sides continue to exploit it.
The club will point to off-field instability and other mistakes within the football department that have so far cost Buckley a clean run at proving himself. Injuries to key and developing players must also be taken into consideration. And as an ambassador and media presenter, he is second to none.
But unfortunately for Buckley, the primary ambition of football clubs is chasing premierships. Collingwood has drifted further away from that ambition every year since he arrived.
Supporters of his reappointment would struggle to cite another example of so many people being so content with this level of long-term performance.