Count this as a blessing in disguise. Buckley will go to North as an untried coach with little to no experience or tested skills and an ego/arrogance to add. He may end up being the next supercoach but I very much doubt it.
Tell me this, besides a rediculously overinflated media profile, what does Bucks have that someone like a Hardwick, Hinkley or Scott doesn't? IMHO the whole push for Bucks has been media driven from the moment Voss claimed the Brisbane job last year.
Whoever coaches North next year will more than likely have them march higher up the ladder than the Tigers due predominately to the amount of average players that will lift their work rate in the premiership age bracket. When TW first arrived we overpreformed off the back of similiar aged players increased workrate. Unless our next coach can fast track some of our youth on mass, it will be difficult to see a huge improvement in our performances going into next year.
I have never been sold on Bucks. IMHO he is overrated. The fact he is an ex-Collingwood captain has afforded him far too much credit than his ability should dictate. If he was a North Melbourne captain he would never have been heralded as the next coach messiah as he has this year.
If he ends up taking the reins at Tigerland it can only be if he deserves it. Giving him the position is filled with too many potential disasters.
We are doing the right thing while North is taking a terrible risk...
Stripes