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Indeed, many of those days happened over the last eight years as Collingwood made the finals in every season from 2006 on, a feat all the more remarkable given clubs usually only stay at the top a limited amount of time before a rebuild becomes necessary.
But Friday night’s loss to Hawthorn – one where Buckley described the injury-hit Magpies as being like ‘lambs to the slaughter’ – finally confirmed Collingwood would miss September action in 2014, lamely sliding out of contention when a quality first half of the year had them right in the hunt for the top eight.
“We’re disappointed with the second half of the year clearly,” said Buckley when asked to reflect on a season where his side won just three of their last 11 games.
“We had high hopes at the beginning and we had high hopes through the middle, getting to the position that we’d gotten too. But you know we were challenged from a personnel sense. We clearly have got to fix our inner injury status, that hurt us more and more as the year went on. The last three weeks were a case in point.”
“So 11-11 this year, 14-8 last year. Like every side that doesn’t get to where they’d like to get to as in finals, we’ll look at games that potentially we should have got over the line in. But over the course of it, I think for what we put out on the park, it’s probably a fair representation of our season.”
Buckley is right and injuries have certainly taken their toll. But simply putting Collingwood’s second-half capitulation this season down to injury obscures other deeper issues at the Westpac Centre.
To start with, where are the skills? When the Magpies dominated the competition, they weren’t simply relying on the press to do the trick. Collingwood were also a brilliant kicking team that rebounded from defence with intent and made opposition teams pay on the turnover. However, in 2014, Collingwood’s effective disposal percentage was at 70.6 percent, the second lowest in the AFL and just marginally ahead of the Giants’ 69.8.
Beyond the likes of Scott Pendlebury, Dayne Beams and Steele Sidebottom, half the time you didn’t know whether a Collingwood kick would hit a team-mate on the chest or a spectator in the face. This fact’s highlighted by Collingwood having one of the competition’s highest clanger counts, the Magpies averaging 46.5 per game to be just behind Gold Coast (48.1), Port Adelaide (46.6) and Richmond (46.6).
Injuries account for part of this, especially when they’ve hit experienced players. When these players go down, their places have been taken by younger team-mates who sometimes cough up the ball in a hurry when the serious heat comes down.
The end result of so much poor disposal is an inability to get the ball inside 50. Even when it gets in there, the entries are often so dodgy it means a rushed shot at goal as forwards like Travis Cloke aren’t in a position to mark. The end result is that Collingwood are averaging just 11.5 goals per game to be marginally ahead of GWS (11.3), Brisbane (10), St Kilda (9.7) and Melbourne (8.4), while the Maggies’ goal accuracy is the second worst in the comp at 46.6 percent. Hawthorn by contrast, is the best with 56.6 percent.
Last year’s culture change may have contributed to the skill drop off. Stunned to have lost the elimination final to Port Adelaide, a furious Buckley forecast severe change in the immediate aftermath of that game. That change came in the form of experienced, skilled players like Alan Didak, Heath Shaw and Darren Jolly leaving the club. Sure, they may have been a somewhat disruptive influence on the rest of the group but their clean ball handling has also been missed in 2014. It’s hardly surprising Collingwood’s effective disposal percentage has dropped by 2.2 percent over the last 12 months, going from 72.8 percent last year to the 70.6 percent figure we mentioned before. Making matters worse, highly skilled top draft choices Nathan Freeman and Matt Scharenberg haven’t been seen because of injury.
While younger players have carried a bigger load, other experienced heads haven’t risen to the occasion. In fact, some bigger name Magpies, for a variety of reasons, appear to have gone backwards this season, among them Travis Cloke, Jarryd Blair, Tyson Goldsack, Heritier Lumumba, Brodie Grundy, Marley Williams and Paul Seedsman.
Already restricted free agent Goldsack is being talked about in terms of a move to Port, even though both Buckley and CEO Gary Pert have emphasised how much his leadership qualities are needed now Luke Ball and Nick Maxwell are gone. But while the Magpies appear keen to hold onto him, the likes of Blair, Seedsman, Ben Sinclair and possibly Fasolo could be on the trade table in a few weeks time.
Goodbye #AFLPiesHawks pic.twitter.com/SKfKDf5MSn
— AFL Photos (@AFLphotos) August 29, 2014But while last year, Buckley was angry at bowing out of the finals early, this year the coach seemed resigned to the fact September was beyond his side. Instead, it was all about looking to a bright future.
“I made the comment in the box at the end to the coaches, it doesn't feel like the end, it feels like the beginning," Buckley declared.
"It's the beginning of whatever we want to make it.
"The commitment of the players, the coaches and everyone involved with the football club is what's going to give us a chance to be at the level that Hawthorn are at.”
Buckley has a point as the young Magpies have certainly put in the effort, one that’s reflected in Collingwood being ninth in the comp for one-percenters per game and third in the average tackles per game category. The pressure levels are a clear sign the team is putting in the hard yards for their coach. Unfortunately, they’re simply not getting reward for effort as they butcher the ball further up the field and see it rebounded back the other way with interest. Even next year, it’s hard to see Collingwood being a serious contender as the team seems to young and the squad seems stacked too heavily with small-to-mid-size forward/midfielder types. But maybe two years down he track, Buckley’s bright future will come and we’ll see whether he really is the coach Eddie McGuire has backed so heavily to deliver the next Collingwood flag.