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Sport Nation
Buckley: Collingwood is the best defensive side by a mile
Jaiden Sciberras • May 20th, 2025 10:45 am
Nathan Buckley has declared Collingwood as the competition’s best defensive side in the AFL.
Off the back of their 10-point win over Adelaide on Saturday, the Magpies currently sit in first for the least goal concessions per game, conceding an average of 10 goals per game.
In the absence of Darcy Moore, the Pies were able to restrict the Crows to just 68 points in the wet, marking the ninth straight game of 90 points or less against the current league leaders.
Commending their ability to withstand pressure and break into attack, Buckley likened the Magpies to a Boa constrictor in their suffocating game style.
“The biggest part for me is Collingwood,” Buckley told SEN’s Whateley.
“When you’ve got (Jamie) Elliott and (Bobby) Hill and (Beau) McCreery in front of the ball, and you’ve got (Will) Hoskin-Elliott who’s running on the outside and they can go end-to-end and score a goal in the heartbeat – that’s about five per cent of what Collingwood does.
“95 per cent of it is just to put teams to sleep. They’re the best defensive side by a mile. They’re 10 goals better than the next best, so they’re a goal a week better than the next best defence.
“The way I saw the game on the weekend, it was like brothers fighting in the lounge room. Collingwood are the big brother and Adelaide are the little brother, and the big brother has the little brother in a headlock.
“Lets him go for 10 seconds, smacks him around the head for a bit, and then puts him back in a headlock. That’s how Collingwood play their footy. They put you in a headlock, then they’ll let the shackles go and they’ll score really quickly.
“They might score two or three or four goals in 10 minutes, and then they’ll put you back in a headlock again.
“That is experience, but it is part of the game plan, and it keeps it in their clenches where they are really confident.”
Coming up against the Crows’ three-pronged attack of Darcy Fogarty, Riley Thilthorpe and Taylor Walker, Collingwood’s undersized defence in the absence of captain Darcy Moore stood strong, holding the trio to just five goals between them - their second-lowest combined tally from a full game this season.
It was veteran Jeremy Howe and the resolute Billy Frampton who held strong together at the back.
“Jeremy Howe had a really good game,” Buckley continued.
“(Billy) Frampton’s not an All-Australian defender but he’s doing the job really well. They just make sure the game is set up the way that works for them.
“They don’t want an open game, they want an in-tight game, and then when it gets out in the open its on their terms, at their time. They set the game up that way.
“They’re a Boa constrictor. You think you’re okay, but then you get whacked in the face and then you get constricted again.
“You need to be able to beat them in the trenches to be able to get over the top of them.”
The Pies will look to uphold their spot atop the AFL ladder as they take on the Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium this Saturday night.
