Nathan Buckley dropped a bombshell on Wednesday morning, announcing that will be stepping down as Collingwood coach mid-season after nearly 10 years in the role.
The upcoming Queen’s Birthday match against Melbourne will be Buckley’s final game in charge with Magpies assistant coach Robert Harvey to take the reins on an interim basis for the rest of the season.
Will clubs come calling for Buckley once he finishes up at Collingwood? The Age's Jake Niall, who broke the news this morning, gave his thoughts.
“He would be a very good candidate for a number of clubs down the track because he’s done 10 years now and he’s going to be a far, far better coach than in his first years at Collingwood,” Niall told SEN’s Whateley.
“Provided he’s got fire in the belly, would he want to do it?
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“Personally, I think he would be an outstanding prospect for one of the Northern market teams if he was willing to move out of Melbourne because he’s such a good ambassador for the code.
“He would help elevate any of those clubs, that’s if they have a coaching vacancy. I think he’ll certainly get looked at.
“If I had to bet on next year, I would bet on the media. I think his natural next port of call is the media and maybe a regroup and see where he goes from there.”
Gerard Whateley thinks several clubs will make immediate contact with Buckley’s management.
“As a commodity, I think he’ll be highly sought after by multiple clubs and almost immediately,” Whateley said.
“I think he’ll have choices of jobs in Melbourne in the medium term if he wants to stay here geographically.
“He is a really interesting presence in the vacancy market because we know historically that one move usually results in a whole lot of moves – and some of them totally unexpected.
“What this does to the coaching landscape in the coming days, weeks and months will be utterly fascinating.”
Buckley isn’t sure whether he wants to coach at another club in 2022.
Will Nathan Buckley coach again?
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) June 9, 2021
His response: pic.twitter.com/s9IjizoZRs