As a player I thought Nathan Buckley was extremely talented and had the nous to couple it with hard work but I equally held a dimmed view that, through the general Collingwood effect, he was treated by many - media, umpires, Eddy, mostly Eddy - as though the sun shone out of his backside.
Since he became coach, I have developed a respect for the guy. Maybe this says more about me and my jaded sense of how the world is and being too quick to judge entitlement, but I thought whereas he could have turned into Chris Scott II, he in fact continually put the good of the players and the game over territorial and personal ambition.
Much of his life has suffered for the team he lead, yet there is still class and humility there. Irony is not the right word, but there'd be some synchronicity if he were to be come Justin Longmuir's assistant at some stage. We have had and could have much worse.
