After expressing his frustrations with Collingwood’s style of play last week, former club recruiter Matt Rendell has revealed coach Nathan Buckley responded with a cheeky text message after their upset victory over West Coast on Saturday night.
Speaking on SEN’s Dwayne’s World last Friday ahead of the elimination final, Rendell said every one of the club’s forwards had gone backwards since their Grand Final appearance in 2018.
Rendell joined the show on Monday afternoon and revealed Buckley made contact with him just minutes after their thrilling one-point win in Perth.
“I will tell a funny story,” he said on SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“I’m sitting there (on Saturday) and had a few wines by the end of the game watching two games of footy in a row and I got a text message from (Nathan) Buckley at half-past-11 saying, ‘that was for you mate’ with a thumbs up.
“So, I said, ‘thanks for that’ and then gave him some more advice for this week’s game against Geelong.
“It was the first time I had heard from anyone at the club since I left to be truthful, I think he’s had that text ready to go. He must have walked out of the press conference and sent it straight away.
“It was hilarious when I got that, and I had a laugh.”
Rendell was full of praise for Collingwood’s game style, reaffirming his belief that playing attacking footy would see them return to the heights of two years ago.
“It took all of one minute (of the game on the weekend) to realise they had completely changed their tact and I said at the time that the Eagles wouldn’t expect it and they didn’t know how to handle it,” he said.
“They kept (Mason) Cox deep in the goal square which they should’ve been doing all the time because he attracts a lot of the attention and allows the rest of the forward line to get opened up.
“Those (forwards) who had gone backwards all looked like they were back to their 2018 best even though (Jordan) De Goey was well held, but he even kicked two crucial goals.
“I was thinking about it afterwards, maybe Collingwood has been doing rope-a-dope the whole year and then when they’ve got to the finals, they’ve started to attack the game.”