What do we make of Collingwood’s impressive win over West Coast on the weekend and what it means for both caretaker coach Robert Harvey and previous coach Nathan Buckley?
The Magpies have been a more attacking side under Harvey and while it hadn’t translated into many wins until the weekend, it has been clear for all to see.
Garry Lyon and Tim Watson discussed on SEN Breakfast how the change reflects on Buckley’s time in charge, Harvey as a coach and his chances of landing the senior coaching role.
Lyon: “Is there any possibility, when you see Collingwood play in the way they did against West Coast, that Nathan Buckley held the group back or are they playing with this freedom because there’s not any great consequence on the season right now?”
“They’re clearly playing for the coach. Robert Harvey’s got them playing in a manner that is breathtaking and it is the antithesis of what they were doing, the stodgy, boring, constipated footy they were playing under Nathan.”
Watson: “If you go back and re-examine (how they were playing) there was a micromanagement of the way they were playing and how slow they were and how stifled they were with their ball movement.”
“Maybe it’s just by the circumstances they find themselves in that they’re like ‘okay, we’re towards the end of the season now, let’s just be more adventurous and be more creative in the way that we play’.”
Lyon: “It’s more than that now though. They look to be thriving on it.”
Watson: “What they have done over a long period of time. They have been taught the defensive mechanisms of the game.”
Lyon: “So you think they were ready for some freedom?”
Watson: “That’s right.”
Lyon: “Why didn’t Buckley see that?”
Watson: “I don’t know. I don’t know why he didn’t try and introduce that earlier. That’s what everyone was calling for. We knew they could defend, we knew that, you’ve got really good defensive players. The players are disciplined about how they move without the ball, we just needed to see a bit more flare with the ball movement.”
Lyon: “Nathan Buckley … is this the best example of a coach staying too long? You get mired in there and you’re surrounded by people with a similar mindset, and maybe Robert Harvey was doing this I don’t know ‘Bucks we’ve got to free them up’ – ‘no, no, no’.”
Watson: “Buckley had a philosophical belief in the way the game needed to be played and the way he wanted to set them up to play.”
Lyon: “I watched Jordan De Goey on the weekend playing in the manner that he did and I’m thinking – why? Maybe Bucks was just harder on the group to say ‘no, no, you must have a defence-first philosophy.”
Watson: “I asked you on Friday if there was any way Robert Harvey could keep this coaching position and we had a discussion about it and my feeling was the only way he could come into contention would be by weight of numbers of performance and wins against losses. Coming into the weekend he hadn’t had that.
“They finish with another three wins, does that make it harder for Collingwood to move on from Harvey?”
Lyon: “I think Robert Harvey has enhanced his reputation as either a prospective future coach or a prospective assistant coach somewhere else. I don’t know whether he’s going to get a look-in at Collingwood, but he’s done himself no harm.”
Collingwood will complete their 2021 season with matches against Hawthorn, Brisbane and Essendon.