Buckley is/was no different to Brad Scott at North. An average coach who only made finals a couple of times across a whole decade. Both left their lists in a mess when they left.
What rubbish
They played finals in 18,19,20
So did Brad Scott's Norf in 2012,14,15,16 reaching two Prelims.
Brad Scott didn't inherit a premiership & dual grand finalist team either like Buckley did.
18 they get beaten in heartbreaking fashion in a GF (wonderful day )
After the Eagles gave them a 5 goal head start .... cough cough cough! (yes wonderful day
)
Buckley had no Plan B.
19 they get beaten in a prelim by 4 points
GWS were severely undermanned (no Greene, Ward, Whitfield, Coniglio etc) and dead on their feet in the last quarter and the Pies still lost
. The Pies didn't kick a goal for virtually two quarters against a weakened opponent. That final was a woeful coaching performance.
20 they beat West Coast over there as massive underdogs
Another one hit wonder win that year. Lucky to finish 8th in the end (thanks to the Dees) and they were annihilated by the Cats the following week.
And you compare him to Brad Scott????
With similar records after a decade coaching, I would argue the comparison is reasonable enough.
Then you blame him for a list management debacle that resulted in them having to get rid of a bunch of first 22 players (hardly the fault of a coach)
Collingwood hasn't had a genuine decent key forward since Travis Cloke was dumped. Blind Freddy could see they needed one for years. Buckley had plenty of time to input his own views to their recruiters to draft/trade a key forward or two rather than relying on Mason "one game wonder" Cox. Instead they chased after and overpaid Beams, Treloar, etc and blew their salary cap
.
I’m not a Buckley fan , but to blame him for the list and compare him to Brad Scott of all people is ridiculous
Dimma mentioned yesterday that he has some final input into our recruiting decisions and our recruiters sit in on his match committee to understand how we play and what type of players we want.
Buckley does have to take some responsibility as does Brad Scott when he was at North for their respective clubs overpaying and recruiting the wrong players.