All I Can be

[Tex200]

Nathan Buckley was never a favourite of mine, Im sure Im not alone. However by chance I have had the opportunity of reading his Bio which has given an excellent and revealing insight into the man and his career.

I have generally found sporting Bio's to be a bit bland, but Nathan gives such in depth and honest accounts of his character, its flaws and the reasons he is the person he is.

The book is a brilliant read IMO and I am interested in comments from anyone else who may have read it also. If you haven't, dont be put off by the fact its Nathan...grab a copy, its a beauty.

 

[Thursfieldness]

Great read.

I've always liked and admired him for both his ability and character. 'All I Can Be' only enhanced my opinion of him.

 

[Bubble Wrap]

I'm a bit biased, given I have a huge man-crush on Nathan Buckley and would consider turning for him, but it's one of the best sporting bio's I've read.

I thought it showed a lot of insight and depth of knowledge about the game that would be beyond most footballers - I finished the book more convinced than ever he will make a great coach, the only thing stopping him will be having that senile old fool looking over his shoulder as his "director of coaching".

 

[Axcellence]

I've read it as well and it was a fantastic read... his character quality really shines through.

Reading between the lines, he didn't necessarily agree with Malthouse on areas of discipline - and he would be stricter and in my opinion would get more out of Collingwood players.

And he is bloody talented...

 

[Porkaspies09]

yeh ive read it , awesome book, amazing to see when he was a kid he was no good and he believed in himself with the help of his father that he came out to be the player he was. a lot of people say he is tosser and stuff like that but he truly is a great man ive seen him help alot of people that many other players wouldnt help.so yeh good book, does anyone know if robert harvey has a book out similar to bucks, coz i may like to read it aswell even though he didnt play for collingwood.

 

[PendlesIsAStar]

I found it a great read - polished it off in 3 days. I just thought it missed the happy ending.

I was interested in Buckley's thoughts about reviewing the 03' GF loss but Malthouse didn't want to. Seems to be a fair parallel between how we went for a couple of years after that and how well Port have gone since 2007.

The thing I liked about it is that he never regretted his time with us and I remember speaking to him after a demoralisingly close loss at Geelong in about 1999 and I asked him to stick with us, he said "I'm going nowhere mate, you make sure you stick with us". He proved to the world in my books that the last thing he was, was a mercenary - he was anything but and loyal too.

I think he'll have far more influence on Collingwood as a coach than he ever could as a player and I think that's a great thing and his dream of seeing us win a flag while sitting in the stands isn't dead by a long shot.

 

[Will.B.Worth.Da.Waite]

I thought in comparison to other sporting biographies (which i read a lot of), it was an average book to be honest. It was very fascinating to get an indepth account of the type of person Bucks is, but in terms of rating it as a book itself, I think there's a lot better out there, including Hird's.

The worst is easily Kouta's. Feels like it's written by a 10 year old.

 

[Zeke]

I thought it was a pretty good read. Bucks seemed to be pretty honest about failings and in particular his naivety in regard to the trade/draft situation. A bloke who's sole motivation was the get the absolute best out of himself and contribute to the success of his footy club.

 

[mjhen3]

Excellent read.

Gave a great insight into the man and how driven he is. Was also interesting to learn about his father's influence over him over the years.

After reading it I'm as certain as one can be that he'll coach a flag.

 

[Dylz48]

Really good read the thing I enjoyed the most was when he went through what really happened when he was drafted/traded and that first year at the bears

 

[Primetime Pricey]

The image of his knee when he slipped on the rocks is pretty good.

 

[alfiiee]

I read it last year and just recently started again.. Now that it is off season at least i can have some footy on my mind..

Thoroughly enjoyed it.. Pretty much spoke openly about everything and was honest..
This book plays a big part as to why we all think he will be a great coach.
The fact that he was barely getting a game and then turned his whole career around in the space of a couple years is amazing. Dedicated himself to be "all he could be"
This plus his hunger for success..

 

[shoe]

yeh ive read it , awesome book, amazing to see when he was a kid he was no good and he believed in himself with the help of his father that he came out to be the player he was. a lot of people say he is tosser and stuff like that but he truly is a great man ive seen him help alot of people that many other players wouldnt help.so yeh good book, does anyone know if robert harvey has a book out similar to bucks, coz i may like to read it aswell even though he didnt play for collingwood.

Do you only read books by people who played at collingwood?

 

[Thommo 42]

Great insight to his career, the draft situation and how he wasn't all talent - there was plenty of hard work.

As far as books go, I wouldn't say it was 'great' - but if you want to udnerstand bucks, its about as good as it could possible have been.

What a man.

 

[Johnson#26]

A great book, completely honest, and very inspirational at times in his ruthlessness and never-ending desire to be the absolute best he can be at all that he does. He is the role model kids should look to (there are others, of course, eg R.Harvey), but he is a champion. Will lift all players through his presence, surely? You'd want to go all out to do what you could for him. Better than Hird's book, too, IMO, which was ok, but I reckon it missed a bit here and there.

 

[Perce]

Hird has written a few books, and if you think any of them are remotely close to the Bucks book in quality then you are an easy marker. Hird's books are soft, evasive on key issues (in regard to himself but especially in regard to others), full of bland statements. Bucks' book is gritty and so raw I almost worried for the bloke, exposing so much of his soul. My estimation of Buckley went up massively after reading this. It is one of the three best sports bios I've ever read and clearly the best footy autobiography. After reading it you realise he deserves every success that comes his way. Just a shame he's black and white!

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I picked it up a couple of weeks ago after being stranded at Sydney airport for 6 hours, and what a great read it was.

We all know Buck's is a cluely individual, but he really got lead down the path at the start of his AFL career. The Brisbane-North-Collingwod stuff has to be read to be believed.

 

[Fino]

Excellent read. Top notch individual.

 

[Nankervis brothers]

The standards of ghost-writing have improved vastly in recent years.

 

[Jatz]

always respected bucks, think he is a quality person and footballer, really felt for him not winning a premiership.would have even been okwith collingwood winning the flag just for one year so he could get what he deserved.
looks like i should read the book

 

[Kid A]

Bucks's favourite album is OK Computer

Enough said, I love the prick

 

[Zahki]

It's a fantastic read and the insight into his mind is great. You can tell the man puts his heart and soul into succeeding in whatever he attempts, the part where it mentioned that he was getting older so he started looking at what body types the longest lasting players had and lost weight accordingly tells you all you need to know about how meticulous he was about getting the absolute most out of himself as a football player.

You can also tell that not winning a premiership during his career has weighed heavily on him, especially because he lost twice to the team he left, that will probably haunt him for the rest of his life.

But he's going to be a great coach if he applies himself the way he did as a player. I think a lot of Collingwood supporters will find Buckleys style more appealing than Malthouses, he sounds like a hard taskmaster.

 

[Tex200]

Thanks to all posters for the thoughts on this book.

My favourite parts were definitely the Brisbane saga, the way it was managed by the clubs and the way he himself managed it.

I was also interested in how he felt about the whole FIGJAM issue as well. This merged with a lot of quite deep revelations about himself which has given me an enormous amount of respect for him. Takes a lot of courage to put your failings and fears out in the public domain like that.

I agree that Hird's read was pretty ho hum in comparison which was disappointing given he was one of my favourite players ever.

 

[Snag Breac]

A rare, brilliant book, because Buckley reveals himself as much as anyone can; and because it's suffused with his love of footy. A great read, even for those not interested in footy.