2020 is shaping as an important year in Nathan Buckley’s tenure as Collingwood coach.
Grand Final and preliminary final heartbreak in 2018 and 2019 indicates the Magpies aren’t far away from a first premiership since 2010, but how much time will Buckley get to deliver the ultimate success?
Entering his eighth season at the helm with a 55 per cent winning record, Buckley is part of a select group of coaches that haven't won a premiership for the one club over an extended period.
Australian Football Hall of Famer Terry Wallace crunched the numbers.
“The coach to ever have coached the most amount of games (at the one club) is the late Ted Whitten Sr, he coached 228 games for Footscray Football Club – only the one club – without winning a premiership,” Wallace told SEN Mornings.
“Second on that list is Neale Daniher on 223 at the Melbourne Football Club and third on the list is Wally Carter; coached North Melbourne, fourth on the list is Brad Scott … he finished on 211 (games), and fifth on the list is Nathan Buckley on 184 games.
“If Collingwood don’t a flag in the next two years, Nathan Buckley will become the longest ever serving coach of the one club not to have delivered a premiership.”
Wallace continued: “So, my question off the back of that is: How long does this go for? How long does Nathan Buckley get to breakthrough?”
“For me, I think he’s got about four years with this group to get the job done, so that he gets the amount of time with this group that he has formulated to have a serious, serious crack at it.
“If they have a reasonable year this year I would sign him up for another two and give him that opportunity so it is a four-year period.”
Buckley, 47, signed a two-year extension last February that runs until the end of 2021.