Coming out of the AAMI Community Series, Nathan Buckley has put together his five talking points in ‘the Buck stops here’.
Covering off the team that impressed him most, what causes pre-season injuries and more, here’s what was on the former Collingwood coach’s mind.
1. MRO and intent versus outcome
Buckley: “What are we trying to legislate for? The intent of an action, or the outcome of an action?”
“Let’s look at Nathan Kreuger. I think it’s nearly universal that he took his eyes off the ball at the last minute, how much of it was defending himself or not, and he actually went to bump.
“If Callan Ward was knocked out and off the field, not him, would he get weeks?
“So the outcome clearly has an impact … how do you get that balance right? Surely it’s the intent that matters, why do we take the outcome into consideration?
“(Brayden Maynard) it was a football action. He hit the ball. It was a spoil. Incidental contact. The outcome would suggest (he has no case to argue) and if the MRO is looking at outcome, there’s going to be an issue.
“It was clumsy, but his intent was to spoil the ball and he hit the ball.
“Because outcome is what decisions are being made off, he’s in strife. I don’t think his intent was to knock the bloke out. The MRO are making decisions on outcome, so knowing the system, then Brayden’s in strife.”
Brayden Maynard is in the book after this incident with Daniel Lloyd.#AAMISeries pic.twitter.com/RlcnyFGO23
— AFL (@AFL) March 6, 2022
2. Pre-season injuries
Buckley: “Injuries in practice matches, nobody likes to see it. Hunter Clark and Jack Billings for St Kilda, obviously Kreuger, a couple of others, Rory Laird for Adelaide.”
“(Someone might say) ‘why aren’t the coaches looking after their players, why are we getting injuries coming into the season’, if you do not play and train at intensity, in a zone that injury is a possibility, you cannot improve as an induvial or as a team.
“These games and these situations are absolutely necessary. When Hunter Clark put his head over the ball, I don’t mind seeing that. You don’t like him out for four to six weeks, but you don’t mind seeing a young player playing the game at the intensity it needs to be played because he’s going to be better as a result.”
3. Positional shifts
Buckley: “The fact that when coaches see traits in their players and understand the balance of their best teams, because that’s what they’re looking to do, preparing to produce a team, to develop a team, that is going to beat the best on the big stage.”
“(Noah Balta) was really good as a defender, came on in the last 18 months, but (him moving forward) will be a watch.
“The other one who went from back to forward was Baker. What they’ve identified Richmond is, ‘we’ve done this on our hunt and our pressure’ and he cut his teeth as a small forward.
“Went to a wing, went back, and played really good footy, but they clearly need his hunt and pressure in the forward half and there was a five minute period where he laid three tackles and I thought, wow, this is going to be good for them and I reckon they’re going to be real good again.”
4. Richmond
NATHAN BUCKLEY’S EXPANDED THOUGHTS ON THE TIGERS HERE.
5. Bucks’ thought for the day
“I just wonder how Jaidyn Stephenson woke up on Friday to see the news that there was a Suns player who had 10 bets totally $256 and received a two-week suspension and $5000 fine, next to Jaidyn’s three bets at $36 for a 22-week suspension and a $20,000 fine.”
“I just wonder what Stevo thought about the consistency of that decision making – and he did miss the last half of 2019 – we lost the Prelim by four points. He would’ve been handy.”
SEN Chief Reporter Sammy Edmund added some clarification to the discussion.
“Jaidyn Stephenson was betting on his own outcome. Betting on the number of goals he would kick and how many disposals his teammates would get and he’s involved the game so I think that’s a pretty big difference,” Edmund said.
