Buckley: My future is not an excuse or a distraction

Nathan Buckley is adamant the uncertainty surrounding his future as Collingwood coach is not distracting his team and said he would not use it as an excuse after the Magpies tumbled to second-last on the ladder by losing to Essendon on Anzac Day.

The Pies’ hopes of a fourth consecutive finals berth are quickly evaporating, with Buckley’s side having lost four games in a row, including the 24-point defeat to the regenerating Bombers at the MCG on Sunday.

Nathan Buckley’s Magpies were outplayed by the Bombers in the annual Anzac Day blockbuster.Credit:Getty Images

In his 10th season at the helm, club great Buckley is out-of-contract. Having lost a raft of experienced players at the end of last season, the Pies have been further depleted in recent weeks by injuries to key players including Jeremy Howe, Taylor Adams and Jordan De Goey, none of whom played on Sunday.

Buckley said the Pies’ performances in recent weeks suggested they weren’t handling being without so many stars but he refused to use that as a blanket reason for his team’s run of outs.

“Essendon have got a lot of youth, we had a lot of youth. We haven’t got that many on the sideline. Up until two weeks ago we didn’t have many guys that weren’t available to play. Jamie Elliott and Trent Bianco who hasn’t played a senior game at this point. We’ve had a few more add to that over the last two or three weeks and we haven’t won a game in that time, so we haven’t had the capacity to cover if it’s a personnel issue.
“But I think it’s not the only issue we have. I’m not about to sit here and say we can’t win with who we’ve got, that’s a defeatist attitude that we won’t take,” Buckley said.

“We want to win games of footy. We’re not playing well enough at the moment. There were positives in tonight like Daics [Josh Daicos] was really good as a midfielder…JT [Josh Thomas] went in there and gave us a little bit. Will Hoskin-Elliott looked better on the wing, [Nathan] Murphy was good when he came in on that wing. Isaac Quaynor’s continued his good form, Darcy Cameron has had a breakout game, 21 touches as a tall. There’s positives to take from it but we just didn’t have the weight of numbers go our way, and we didn’t play with any efficiency at all.

“The margins are quite narrow…we were in the game for a lot of it.”

Following a loss to Essendon in 2017, another year in which he was out-of-contract, Buckley said the uncertainty surrounding his future was having an impact on the side.

But he was unwilling to buy into that theory this time around.

“So I said that four years ago did I? That’s probably were it should belong I reckon,” he said.

“No, would be the short answer,” in reference to whether his future was affecting the side.

Incoming Pies president Mark Korda has said he will not make a call on Buckley’s future, leaving that job to football boss Graham Wright.

Buckley said he was hopeful, but not certain, De Goey would return from concussion to face Gold Coast at the ’G next Saturday.

Meanwhile, Essendon coach Ben Rutten was pleased with how his side responded in the final term when challenged by the Pies.

“I’m pretty proud of the way they fought it out. I think we showed a bit of maturity in that last quarter, when we needed to,” Rutten said.

Aaron Francis (ankle) will be assessed after being substituted out of the game.

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