Darren Jolly on Nathan Buckley
''Just the excuses he gave me in that meeting were all bullshit and that was the hardest thing to stomach, that he was a coward, really. We had a problem. He had an issue with me and I had an issue with him. And I'm not the only one. There's a lot of players there that are in that same boat," Jolly told The Age of the end-of-season debrief when he was told he was no longer wanted at the Magpies.
MORE: Nathan Buckley, Eddie McGuire hit back at Darren Jolly | Five crackers from the AFL bargain bin
Nathan Buckley on Darren Jolly
"It’s probably the toughest time of a career when you’re sort of coming down the other side and it can be a really difficult period to manage … he’s still coming to grips with his footy mortality. We just need to be sensitive of that, and understand when people are hurt and haven’t got what they want, sometimes things come out," Buckley's diplomatic response to Jolly's comments via Melbourne radio station SEN soon after.
Is he Jolly well right?
Darren Jolly's media utterings are different, and far more interesting, than the bland, minder-prepped offerings from most AFL players.
His slamming of former Melbourne coach Neale Daniher and ex-Collingwood ruckman Josh Fraser via his newspaper columns in The Age shows he is not a person who tries to pass off shit as strawberry jam.
Jolly's comments on Fraser in May clearly go some way to the heart of this whole issue. When playing at Sydney, Jolly had sledged Fraser and questioned his courage around the ball. Soon after, Jolly found himself playing for Collingwood.
His relationship with Fraser was summed up in one of his self-penned newspaper columns:
"It's safe to say that I was really shocked by Josh's attitude towards me during my time with him at the Pies. It was very acrimonious. Unfortunately, he chose to ignore me instead of embracing the situation and barely spoke to me for that entire season. I'm sure if he'd had a better attitude, we could have had a good ruck combination and he would have continued at the Pies for a bit longer."
There can be little doubt that affected his relationship with Buckley and others at Collingwood. Jolly is now an ex-AFL player. He can say what he likes without fear, favour, or being smothered by layers of media minders.
The insight into his relationship with Buckley and that exit interview is his recollection of events. Obviously, Buckley's is far different.
Buckley's, or none
Nathan Buckley has made it clear since the Magpies' disappointing finals exit that things are going to be done differently around the Westpac Centre.
In his first two seasons, he was basically beholden to the players he inherited from predecessor Mick Malthouse after the messy coaching succession.
Heath Shaw's elimination final meltdown gave Buckley the mandate to make change. Shaw was shipped out. Jolly was among several experienced players delisted. Wantaway Dale Thomas was allowed to leave for Malthouse's new club, Carlton.
Buckley has made it clear he wants everyone at Collingwood on the same page. If there has been a so-called "brat pack" at the club as many speculate, it has been at very least heavily diluted, if not disbanded entirely, by the coach. Pliable, coachable young minds are the new black at the black-and-white.
Buckley has made it clear. It's my way or the highway. And the picture he's painted of Jolly is just as clear - an embittered, aging player whose best football is behind him and whose body is failing him.
And he's done so with careful choice of words and the utmost diplomacy. Buckley is nothing if not a media professional, and no less interesting than Jolly to listen to because of it.
The final say
Darren Jolly is no longer a Collingwood player, nor an AFL player.
Clear validation of Buckley and Collingwood's decision on Jolly came in Wednesday's rookie draft.
Jolly had been strongly considered by two other AFL clubs - St Kilda and Essendon - for a spot on their rookie list. Neither chose to draft him.
In fact, all of Collingwood's 17 rivals had sundry chances to take a punt on a two-time premiership ruckman on the wrong side of 30 by signing him as a free agent or via the drafts. All chose not to.
Most damning for Jolly, his former understudy at Collingwood Cameron Wood, who had been delisted by the Pies 12 months earlier, found a home when Jolly couldn't. That was at former Magpies coach Malthouse's club Carlton.
Buckley's judgement will come within the next two seasons, when his imprimatur has been firmly stamped on Collingwood and the results of this become clear.
Using players that weren't necessarily his, the Magpies have made the last two finals series under Buckley.
Can the team that Bucks built achieve greater success?