Nathan Buckley in eye-opening call on return to AFL coaching amid links to Tasmania team

Nathan Buckley sparked rumours that a return to AFL coaching is on the cards by saying it is "something I’m looking at" last week as multiple vacant roles are up for grabs but he has since changed his tune. The 51-year-old, who called an end to his Collingwood coaching tenure midway through the 2021 season after almost 10 years at the helm, has also recently been linked with the now vacant West Coast Eagles role as well as the new Tasmanian franchise and Port Adelaide.

On Fox Footy’s post-match coverage on Friday night, Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph put the question candidly to the analyst if he'd be interested in the West Coast job asking: “Bucks, West Coast job - interested?” To which Buckley joked: “I’m too busy coaching Port Adelaide, Adelaide and Tassie." He then elaborated: “I still don’t know if I’ve got my hand up to coach, but it’s something that I’m looking at.”

But on Monday the former Collingwood mentor played down any talks of a return in the near future. Kane Cornes asked Buckley if he was nearing a coaching comeback, but the 51-year-old said the treatment of coaches and the pressure that comes with a senior coaching role is why he is hesitant to jump back in.

“I’ve got no doubt I could do the job well, I’ve held that opinion since I’ve been out (in 2021)," he told SEN radio. "The thing that I am noting and observing is a reinforcement of how senior coaches are treated or mistreated on this side (the media).

“There’s a lot of crap. No (it’s not worse) but it’s just as bad. The emotion on this side of it, and the competition for opinions on this side of the ledger is not a surprise but it’s shocking. I’m sure Chris Fagan was somewhat aware of it, Luke Beveridge was, Matthew Nicks and Ken Hinkley in two-team towns, Justin Longmuir early in the season was copping it.

"I suppose you might witness it more when you’re in the position that we’re in where your perspective is 360 and you’re seeing it all. It doesn’t altogether paint a pretty picture of going into that space. You have to go through all that crap to get in there and then if you get in there you’re fine, but you know you’re going to have all that crap on the other side as well. I don’t know if I need that in my life, to be honest.”

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Nathan Buckley says linking him to clubs is premature

Buckley says the talk linking him to clubs is premature as at this point in time he doesn't have the fire in the belly to return to coaching. “It’s just scuttlebutt, it’s innuendo, it’s grist for the mill, it’s everything the media loves,” he said further.

“It goes nowhere, it does nothing, other than run a cycle on a headline. The way for it to occur is for me to actually sit down and decide that there is a fire burning that needs to be quenched. Right now, I can’t say that there is.

“That’s not to say that there won’t be something that changes that and flicks the switch. Right now it’s where it’s always been in the last couple of years and I’m enjoying this time on the outside of footy, on the fringes, enjoying my time in the media.”