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"Too quickly": Buckley reveals insight on Demons process
SEN • September 12th, 2025 9:22 pm
Nathan Buckley has spoken in regard to the Melbourne coaching role following the appointment of fellow candidate Steven King.
Buckley, who was the favourite for the job, was questioned by the football club regarding his readiness to step into the role as soon as this week, however as expressed by Buckley himself, the process simply moved too quick for him to prepare an answer.
As expressed by SEN's Gerard Whateley who broke the initial news of King's hiring, the Demons asked Buckley, "if you were offered this job tomorrow would you take it?"
And due to the prospect of the upcoming Tasmania job, Buckley was not ready to commit to Melbourne.
“First, congratulations to Steven King and the Melbourne Football Club for being able to make this appointment,” Buckley told Fox Footy.
“I was asked that question, and I said I needed until Wednesday morning. I’m meeting with Tassie on Tuesday and I needed a little bit more of an insight into that process and their timeline before I was able to make a final call on whether I was willing to step into the Melbourne role.
“There was a couple of other things that I was prosecuting and looking at as well. When you’ve been there before, you’re probably looking at a few different things than you would if you were a first time coach that you’re prepared to absorb and then fix once you’re in.
“It was an honest process, it was a transparent process between Melbourne and I, and at no stage were we unaware of the reality of the situation, and I felt like it was respectful.”
Speaking on his presentation for the job, Buckley explained how the Demons went about their hiring process.
“Hopefully (I presented) well!" he said.
"I presented on Monday morning, and then went back for another chat on Thursday morning. The presentation was about, who are you, and what you’re coaching philosophy and then answer the questions for about an hour that they had. There was a lot of to and fro, so there was a lot of information gathering from Melbourne.
“When you look at the process, it’s happened really quickly from Monday morning. Too quickly for me, and that’s fine. Melbourne feel they’ve got their man, and that’s really all that matters for them.”
“Yeah, that’s been in place for a week and a half now, so I’ll sit down with Brendan (Gale) again. We’ve had chats periodically along the way. That timeline… there’s no license yet and still a little bit to play out.”
