Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has given an insight into who he thinks could take over from Scott Pendlebury as the club’s next captain.
Pendlebury, 35, stepped away from the role last month and the Magpies are yet to announce his successor as both the playing and coaching group mull over who will be the club’s 48th senior skipper.
While Pendlebury only resigned from the role recently, Buckley says he and gthe veteran midfielder originally had preliminary talks to hand over the role earlier before COVID hit.
“Pendles and I had spoken about it for a couple of years actually, about a handover and when was the right time,” Buckley told SEN Afternoons.
“It was philosophical chats and spit-balling, but he really was keen to still be present when the next captain came in.
“We were looking at it into 2020, but then COVID hit and it’s nearly like all of the progressive plans you had they come back into themselves, I wasn’t surprised to see that (him continuing).”
With a number of senior heads on the club’s list, Buckley ran through who he sees as the main candidates after seeing the leadership group work under Pendlebury.
“The guys that I thought were going to be around the mark – Steele (Sidebottom) has always been a good lieutenant, but I don’t think he’s going to (become captain), he’s probably along in his career too far as well,” Buckley said.
“Jeremy Howe and Taylor Adams were the next two. Howie is an underrated leader and general on-field with his capacity to pull the group together and to lead with the right measure of head and heart.
“Tay’s development has been awesome the last two or three years, he’s been a little bit injury prone, he hasn’t been as available as he’d like to be.
“They’re probably the main two.”
While Buckley has both Howe and Adams as frontrunners, another name that’s been touted as a future skipper is All-Australian defender Darcy Moore.
Having coached Moore for six seasons, Buckley feels the 26-year-old would “relish” the opportunity if it were offered to him.
“Darcy Moore is an interesting one,” Buckley said.
“I think that he would relish the responsibility, whether he feels or the club feels that it’s the right time for him, I’m not sure.
“He would always bite off more than he could chew and chew like hell.”
Even though Collingwood have multiple viable options to take the role, Buckley is against the club appointing co-captains as one leader typically stands above the rest in trying situations.
“I’m a fan of depth and breadth of leadership but I don’t think that needs to extend to sharing the captaincy role,” Buckley said.
“As long as you view it internally as ‘our leadership is shared’, because I think you’ll find there will be a character in any playing group who others defer to or see when the s--t hits the fan and everything else goes to muck, he’s the one that stands up.
“There won’t often be two or three, there’ll be one above the others and that’s the guy. If he has the capacity and wherewithal to pull others along with him, he doesn’t always need to be captain that guy but if he is, I think that’s an even stronger attribute for a playing group to have.”
Although Buckley would know better than most the leadership capabilities of the club’s playing group, he stressed that those currently inside the four walls would have much more insight considering he departed Olympic Park 18 months ago.
“My perspective is a little more informed because I had been there for a long time and I know the individuals, but I’ve still been out for 18 months,” Buckley said.
“So, the guys that are in there will know exactly what they’re looking for, where they want to be in the next three or four years.
“Craig McRae, Graham Wright clearly, (Justin) Leppitsch, (Brendon) Bolton – those guys let alone the senior leadership in the playing group, which has always been really strong … they’ll make the right decision I have no doubt.”
Collingwood will announce their next captain this pre-season ahead of their Round 1 clash against reigning premiers Geelong on Friday, March 17 at the MCG.