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McGuire: Buckley would be ideal for Tassie, but...
SEN • August 19th, 2025 1:41 pm
Nathan Buckley would make an ideal first head coach for Tasmania.
That is the opinion of former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire who worked closely with Buckley over a number of years at the Magpies.
Despite McGuire firmly believing that Buckley would be the right man for the Devils, he suggests it's unlikely due to the vacancy at Melbourne.
“Bucks would be a great coach for the Devils,” McGuire told SEN Tassie's The Devil's Advocate.
“He might end up at Melbourne by the looks of things, but he would be ideal. If I had a vote on a coach, I’m not going to get into specifics, but somebody who is mature but also understands that it’s more than a game.”
Hypothetically speaking, McGuire sees an experienced football person like Buckley as the perfect figure to oversee a brand new club, but only if he doesn't land the Demons job.
“The evangelical coaches like a (Kevin) Sheedy when he went to GWS, Robert Walls when he went to Brisbane, Mick Malthouse – people forget what Mick did to transform the West Coast Eagles, Tom Hafey when he went to Sydney, and a myriad of others,” he added.
“But a mature coach actually understands that this is a community concept as well, not just the footy. This is not just the game of football, it’s everything that AFL brings, and football brings.
“Bucks would be ideal. He has been through it all, he’s got a desire to win a premiership and he also understands young people, kids coming through. He would be ideal, and there’s others as well.
“Like I said, I have a feeling that he might end up at Melbourne.”
The Devils recently acquired former Collingwood Head of Recruitment Derek Hine to take the reigns at the club ahead of their inaugural season.
The recruitment genius was a crucial piece at the Magpies, recruiting and developing several stars throughout multiple premiership runs.
Working with Hine for a number of years, McGuire recalls a brilliant story of a draft gamble taken by the recruiting guru, perfectly encapsulating the expertise the Devils have at their disposal.
“He’s a ripper. He was my man!” McGuire said.
“I remember he came to me one time, and we had a priority pick, so he had one pick to get it right. He said, ‘I’m going to cop a bit of criticism over this. There’s this kid…’. I said, 'Alright, back yourself in, tell me a little bit about him'. He said, ‘He’s been a little bit of a basketballer, but we’re going to go early with him'.
“Pick five, Collingwood, Scott Pendlebury. Turned out to be a pretty good pick. That’s what you’ve got, somebody who actually understands the game, can see good kids, and he has got a very good analytical brain.
“He rebuilt Collingwood three times – you’ve got to have the ups and downs in that system, but he was able to set us up for a premiership in 2010, everyone remembers that.
“But we also made a preliminary final, preliminary final, premiership, Grand Final, preliminary final, rebuilt, came back in, just knocked off in 2018, preliminary final the next year, finals in COVID, deep breath, premiership, and still in it again now.
“That’s a pretty good effort over a 25-year period – not much downtime for the Pies in the toughest period coming through.”
