Is Buckley A Good Coach?

[jathanas]

The senior coach is an important club figure and a legitimate topic of discussion. It's fair to do so and everyone has a right to express their view.

The mod team observed that the thread was dominated by a few protagonists and their points were repeated i.e. 8 years of regression vs marked improvement in 17,18 etc Pretty much everyone with a strong opinion has already expressed it here.

What further degraded discussion was the simplistic "sack FIGJAM" or "he's a legend" type posts.

This thread will remain open. If your view has slightly shifted or you have new thoughts please share. In an effort to encourage quality discussion repetitive statements and circular arguments will from now on be deleted as will silly posts suggesting that we sack a coach on match-day.

FYI Gone Critical Anzacday Maggie5

 

[greening22]

I am trying really hard not to be overly negative tonight but I am still trying to identify Buckley's strengths as a match day coach? Is he tactically astute? Is he prepared to switch the team around by making radical changes during the course of the game? Is he prepared to publicly tear strips off players who make fundamental errors during a game? Does he read the flows & rhythms of a game in a timely fashion? Honestly, I am not sure that I can answer any of them in the affirmative. Given that next year - assuming that keeps his job for 2021 - will be his 10th straight year as coach, I am wondering whether I will be asking the same questions then. I look forward to your comments. Goodnight & good luck.

 

[Good_Old]

His willingness to throw caution into the wind and make drastic changes when required.

 

[DWil6]

His willingness to throw caution into the wind and make drastic changes when required.

Sarcasm?

 

[adammania9]

Has always been good, not great. Too system dependent and scared to switch things up until it’s too late and then we fall short by a flattering margin.

More concerning is the back room of assistants that seem to have been there for years now and yet the positions they are in charge of continue to play miserly - Sanderson and Robert Harvey simply are not good enough and that’s why their previous clubs were happy to see them walk.

Somebody made a thread earlier in the year about how concerning it is that we do not have any assistants beside Matty Boyd, a rookie coach who just walked into the job, that has won a flag at AFL level as a player. The lack of experience in getting to the top is telling.

 

[magpies42]

Hard to make a call on his tactical abilities, without being in the box. He does appear willing to mix things up. More imagination that Malthouse, that’s for certain.

In the last two games, we were beaten by our lack of intent... too many passengers really. Despite this we have fought it out, this is a good outcome. I don’t think we have a Buckley problem, it’s more our midfielders think they win purely on player ratings.

 

[OniAu]

if you base your game plan around a dry weather brand of football and play in the winter months, then make a snide comment at half time about over using the ball in terrible conditions. You need to take responsibility.

 

[sadako1999]

Buckley is without doubt the absolute worst coach in the league and what is worse is he has had 2 wonderful lists in his tenure that he has destroyed.

 

[HFF]

I’m concerned.
His job is to get the best out of the players

we have so many talented players not providing enough output let alone maximum output.

His style is becoming a pattern—-you can’t go two quarters of footy in the last 3 games or so and half either goalless halves or one or two goals for the half....
We have lost all our bite, flair and electricity to just go and score freely.

what makes it worse is we have all our best forwards on the park...so this is the fault of Nathan.

 

[sadako1999]

Well I am glad you are concerned. Dejavu. I have been concerned since the start of 2012 when he was given the below team (numbers in brackets are my rating out of 10 for the player at the time) and we know what he did with this team...

B: C.Tarrant (9) N.Brown (8) N.Maxwell (8)
HB: H.Shaw(9) B.Reid (9) H.O'Brien (8)
C: S.Sidebottom (8) S.Pendlebury (10) D.Beams (8)
HF: A.Didak (9) T.Cloke (8) D.Thomas (8)
F: L.Davis (8) C.Dawes (8) A.Krakouer (8)
R: D.Jolly (8) D.Swan (9) L.Ball (8)
INT: S.Wellingham (7) B.Johnson (7) T.Goldsack (7) L.Brown (7)
Emerg: J.Blair (7) A.Toovey (7) B.Macaffer (7)

 

[sr36]

We pushed up too far and copped a heap of cheap easy goals. It's happened a lot.

 

[noideaatall]

From what I have seen and read my conclusion is Bucks lacks the intuition of a champion coach. The match day coaching reflects his ability to recognise the system that might lead him there but the flair to finalise the deal is absent. Flick back to 1970, would Bucks have recognised the potential of handball to change the game? He is misplaced as a coach. Best suited as an adviser to a visionary coach.

 

[sr36]

Well I am glad you are concerned. Dejavu. I have been concerned since the start of 2012 when he was given the below team (numbers in brackets are my rating out of 10 for the player at the time) and we know what he did with this team...

B: C.Tarrant (9) N.Brown (8) N.Maxwell (8)
HB: H.Shaw(9) B.Reid (9) H.O'Brien (8)
C: S.Sidebottom (8) S.Pendlebury (10) D.Beams (8)
HF: A.Didak (9) T.Cloke (8) D.Thomas (8)
F: L.Davis (8) C.Dawes (8) A.Krakouer (8)
R: D.Jolly (8) D.Swan (9) L.Ball (8)
INT: S.Wellingham (7) B.Johnson (7) T.Goldsack (7) L.Brown (7)
Emerg: J.Blair (7) A.Toovey (7) B.Macaffer (7)

Don't disagree overall, but 8 out of 10 for Chris Dawes?

 

[Hazz]

I do want a premiership for Bucks, loved watching him growing up.

I had my doubts about Bucks as a coach for so long, then finally gave up after GWS beat us convincingly at the start of 2018. Of course we turned it around that year and played with flair and nearly got there but for a great set shot conversion. But even then, that was a poor game from us, we played 1 qtr very well, and 10 mins of the last ok. Who cannot get up and about for 4 quarters on grand final day?!?!

Anyway, last year we regressed in being able to play “our brand” for long enough, most weeks it was just 1 quarter of good, 3 quarters of ok to poor application.

This year we are continuing that downward trajectory in the amount of game time we are able to assert dominance, and we are worse again at being able to convert field dominance to scoreboard dominance.

I’m pretty close to resigning myself again, like the start of 2018, that it’s just not going to happen with this game style and/or Bucks.

And it’s a damn shame that Pendles will not get that 2nd premiership to lift him up in the eyes of the rest of the leagues supporters, as he is an amazing talent that we have been blessed to watch!

 

[Deathray]

Spent his first 2 or 3 years learning how to coach with a premiership calibre team. Stopped leaking goals after that and his game plan which involved hoping our good players played well almost worked in 2018.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

I am less concerned about him on gameday than I am with the big picture plan.

Our strengths are rapid ball movement and utilising our dangerous small-medium forwards. Instead we are trying to direct traffic through Cox who is 1/10th of the player that Stephenson, Elliott and De Goey are... hell even Mihocek... simply because he's tall and can occasionally take a mark on a dry day.

 

[TradeDraft]

Still not a Good Gameday Coach.

He won't lead us to a Flag

 

[TradeDraft]

No Plan B when Plan A fails.

Some Weird Selections at the Selection Table and Keeping Cox in on a wet night

 

[Leviathan Pie]

Well, his 9 years would indicate its pretty piss poor.

 

[Moore of the Same]

Don't disagree overall, but 8 out of 10 for Chris Dawes?

6 at best. Doesn't make him any less of a favorite of mine. Love me a big forward.

 

[Hong Kong Pie]

I love Nathan, and think he is a good coach who can make connections and relationships with his team, who love him..... but i'm yet to be convinced that he is a great game day coach. The important wins just aren't there.

 

[Hazz]

I am less concerned about him on gameday than I am with the big picture plan.

Our strengths are rapid ball movement and utilising our dangerous small-medium forwards. Instead we are trying to direct traffic through Cox who is 1/10th of the player that Stephenson, Elliott and De Goey are... hell even Mihocek... simply because he's tall and can occasionally take a mark on a dry day.

Noooo - game day is where he fails.

The gameplan that is worked on through the week is fine, but there seems to be no contingency?! Only plan A.

Thinking on his feet, giving the opposition something different to deal with is the weakness. Throw Moore forward for the last 7 mins tonight, something!!! Stevo is cold, let’s put him on the wing for a minute through the 2nd or 3rd quarters. They’re plonking an extra in front of Coxy? Get Coxy to focus on crashing a pack with his knee out, cause some chaos. Spread our fwds more deliberately so the defenders cannot slack off as easily, try not plonking it on coxys head for a quarter

And for Christ’s sake, when we put in a rubbish last half of the first quarter, and a putrid second quarter, give them a REV at half time!! a good rev up works, it’s BS that we don’t seem to see it these days

 

[Moore of the Same]

For me there have been two Nathan's over his time as head coach. The first was the relatively inept, boorish, stubborn, perfectionist mule that failed to connect with a team of premiership heroes, drove those heroes out of the club or into early retirement and oversaw the recruitment of some of the most average mature footballers ever (looking at you Jordan Russell and Tony Armstrong *shudder*). Others can haggle with the precise dates, but I'd say this was 2012-2016.

2017 seemed to be the genesis of Nathan "Zen master" Buckley. Universally loved by the playing group, recruiter of midfielders galore and was able to put in place a game plan that took a relatively pedestrian side on paper to within a kick of a premiership and a second grand final. This can't be overlooked because he has gotten the best out of a number of players and showed that at the very least he is capable of preparing a team for success.

In some respects I think that our success in 2018 generated false belief and complacency that feeds into Nathan's ingrained stubbornness. I think the coaching team firmly believe that our game style should beat anyone if executed effectively and leaves them baffled when things aren't going right. It's hard to tell if Nathan is a good game day coach because off the top of my head I cant think of a game in recent memory where there's been tactical change/positional change within a game that's turned the tide in our favour (it also doesn't help that the failures and losses as a result of inaction are forever seared in my mind).

 

[Chameleon75]

Has always been good, not great. Too system dependent and scared to switch things up until it’s too late and then we fall short by a flattering margin.

More concerning is the back room of assistants that seem to have been there for years now and yet the positions they are in charge of continue to play miserly - Sanderson and Robert Harvey simply are not good enough and that’s why their previous clubs were happy to see them walk.

Somebody made a thread earlier in the year about how concerning it is that we do not have any assistants beside Matty Boyd, a rookie coach who just walked into the job, that has won a flag at AFL level as a player. The lack of experience in getting to the top is telling.

If what you’re saying about the assistants is correct, doesn’t that reflect on the judgment of whoever appointed/keeps them in their roles?

 

[nahnah]

wanted him to sit Cox the entire 4th and swing Moore forward but of course Wills was already riding the pine so we'd be out on our legs

 

[magpies2013]

Tell me one coach in world sport who still keeps there job after 9 years with no success