SEN Chief Broadcaster Gerard Whateley and Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley have engaged in a heated exchange over questions surround a potential culture issue at the Pies.
With Collingwood defender Sam Murray facing an ASADA investigation for having a performance enhancing substance in his body on game day, Whateley asked the Magpies coach whether there was a pattern emerging at the club.
Whateley: “You have dealt with drug issues either fairly or unfairly in the past, some documented, some by interpretation or extrapolation. Does Collingwood have an issue with illicit drugs?”
Buckley: “No, not that I know of.”
Whateley: “Would you know if you did?”
Buckley: “Yes.”
Whateley: “Did it previously?”
Buckley: “I’m really disappointed that I need to answer these questions from you. And I suppose it goes back to my last answer. This is not something that is big on our agenda right now because it’s isolated. So that’s where it stays and we move on with what we can control. As our football has done our talking this year, our record in retrospect will do the talking, so I’ll be happy to stand on that.”
Whateley: “Have you made a dedicated effort on this front previously? I mean, you have two live examples of players who had their careers interrupted and one sort of deviated and then you live through the front-page issues and what impact that may or may not have had on your team – Eddie McGuire said it did – and a few years later you’re facing one of those issues again. Did you make a determined effort at the club to try to make sure you wouldn’t have to face this…”
Buckley: “… did you feel the environment in this studio change about a minute ago?”
Whateley: “Yeah, but it’s my job to ask the questions and I’m happy to ask them.”
Buckley: “I’m not going to answer them right now, mate. I’m really happy with where the club is going. I think that we are in a great space and heading in a really positive direction. We are full of people who are fallible and are human and who make mistakes. Some of those mistakes are more public than others, but we embrace our humanity and our fallibility and we support our people to the hilt. I think that’s one of the strengths of our football club. If you want to call it culture, we’re not perfect, and we won’t be, but the quest for us to be as good a football team as we can and the quest for us to be the best football club as we can is what we’re on and if we have our imperfections laid to bare and judged externally, well that’s a fair thing for us because we’re in a public forum, but one thing I’m going to do is support and encourage our people as much as we possibly can.”