“There’s a chance”: Buckley confirms Tasmania meeting

NATHAN Buckley has confirmed that he has met with the Tasmania Devils.

The Collingwood great, who has been out of the coaching game since 2021, is being heavily linked with the senior coaching role at the expansion club.

Devils CEO Brendon Gale last week said that he had met with Buckley and now the man himself has made it clear that there has been contact.

“There’s a chance,” he said on SEN’s Whateley when asked if he could coach Tasmania.

“This has come back around with Brendon’s comments. We met a couple of times last year.

“The initial one (contact) was from him and then the second one was from me to understand the challenge that the Devils faced and how they are going to build that club. To put my two cents in, I suppose, and then to learn as much as I possibly could about it.

“There’s a couple of really good football people I believe would go really well down there. I put their names forward and put them in front of Brendon.

“They’ve been exceptional with the slow build that they’ve done. I think they’ve to the order right with list management and recruiting first. The Academies will come and then whatever you get from the drafts and trade conditions.

“Then put your coaching group in place later.”

Buckley is enjoying his current role in the media with SEN and Fox Footy.

So, is he open to coaching again?

“I’m still asking myself that question,” he added.

“That coaching bug is still there, (but) I’m really enjoying what I’m doing at the moment.

“An existing club versus the Devils – they’re two very different propositions. So to understand more about the Devils is to understand whether you think it fits and whether you’re energised by it.

“That challenge is so different to what I’ve experienced. It’s fundamental, it’s what footy is all about is helping young men (and people) find their way through the early stages of their career.

Picking senior players to come in and off-field staff that have experience and are passionate and want to grow something from the ground up.

“It’s a very different challenge and one that I’m still exploring.”

Buckley was agonisingly close to a premiership as both a player and coach.

He was captain when the Pies lost the 2002 Grand Final to the Brisbane Lions by nine points – when he won the Norm Smith Medal – and again the following year by 50 points.

As a coach, a late Dom Sheed goal denied Buckley and his Maggies in the 2018 decider against West Coast.

Finally claiming the ultimate prize is a dangling carrot, but he totally understands the realistic nature of starting a brand new footy club.

“If you go back into coaching you want to win a flag,” Buckley said further.

“That may or may not happen with the Devils in their first four or five years. The pragmatic version would be ‘no, that won’t happen, you’re setting it up to leave a legacy for generations down the track’.

“I understand that as well. That’s all part of it (the decision-making process).”

BY SEN/ANDREW SLEVISON