How Close Did Buckley Come To Coaching North?

Triple M Footy’s James Brayshaw has opened up about how close Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley came to coaching North Melbourne.

JB, who was Kangaroos chairman for 10 years, said that in 2009 North Melbourne had three to four meetings with Buckley, who now finds himself preparing his Magpies for a grand final on Saturday.

“It was. 100 percent,” JB said on Triple M's Rush Hour when asked by Damian Barrett if the job was Buckley’s.

“He couldn’t have been more impressive, I was always confident he was going to make an unbelievable AFL coach.

“I also had a view that it maybe better not being Collingwood to start with because of the enormous heritage he had at the place. 

“So I just said, ‘Maybe you’re better off starting somewhere else and one day going back and coaching Collingwood mightn’t be a bad result’.

“Anyway he was just fantastic. In the end he said, ‘Look, it’s a very flattering offer, I would love to do it but I want to coach at Collingwood’.

“That was no problem, we went through a process after that that coughed up Brad Scott who has been electrically good so no worries. 

“But even through the tough times for him (Buckley), I thought, thinking back on those meetings, this bloke has got so much going for him, and so much that I think is going to put him into the elite coach category.

“It might have taken a bit longer than I thought to happen, but this year he has been just so good.”