Now Buckley Joins The Glamor Boys Down The Back
The Age
Thursday February 29, 1996
A quiet revolution is happening in football. The backline, for 100 years the province of scrubbers, eye-gougers, squirrel- grippers and assorted roughnecks, has opened its arms to the glamor boys from up forward and in the midfield.
Sacrilegious though it might sound, North Melbourne is playing Wayne Carey at centre half-back, and Footscray does likewise with the svelte Chris Grant. Kevin Sheedy likes to give James Hird a run in defence just to remind him of his mortality.
Now Nathan Buckley is in on the act. Collingwood's Buckley won a reputation for class as a winger, centreman and sometime forward, and his skills with hand or foot are the equal of just about anyone. But a half-back? You can't be serious, unless you were at Waverley last night to see Buckley chop up Richmond from his new defensive post in their Ansett Cup encounter.
Well, maybe it's not such a bad idea. West Coast has had the smoothest of operators, Guy McKenna, running off half- back for years. Geelong has Michael Mansfield and Carlton used Ang Christou and Andrew McKay last year. These are scarcely scrubbers. It used to be that you were a defender because you were not good enough to play up forward or in the middle, but no longer.
For his part, Buckley enjoyed it immensely. Surprisingly matched up with the taller and heavier Matthew Richardson at the opening bounce, he chested his opponent and harassed him in a manner that would have pleased the most niggardly of defenders, Craig Kelly. Buckley soon was winning free possessions and pumping his 60-metre kicks across the centre square, nearly always finding their target.
Tony Shaw's most interesting match-up in his first major assignment as Collingwood coach was a wonderful success, and by the 20-minute mark of the first quarter Buckley was in total control. Richmond thumped a high ball into attack, leaving Richardson sitting beneath it. Buckley, conceding nine centimetres in height and eight kilograms in weight to his opponent, climbed aboard Richardson for the mark of the evening.
Richmond would soon shift the rusty Richardson closer to goal, but Buckley remained at half-back, for he was playing too well to have him dragged out of the action. Collingwood had the first six goals of the encounter, and the tone had been well and truly set. Easily best afield, Buckley had 29 disposals.
Shaw would say later that although Buckley had the ability to ``play on either a small or a tall", his move to defence would not necessarily be permanent. By the end of last night's game, even, Buckley had returned to the midfield.
``I've got a belief in my marking ability, but I haven't used it very well since I've played AFL," he said later of his assignment. ``Playing against the bigger blokes makes me use it a bit better."
Buckley said he enjoyed defensive assignments. ``The way footy's going, you are going to get chucked around the place, " he said. ``Getting a chance at half-back is a sign that I might do that again this year, but I think predominantly I'll play across midfield. If need be, I've got experience across half-back and half-forward now. I'll just play wherever it suits the side the best."
Arctic Park lived up to its reputation last night, and only 13,037 people attended - perhaps 30,000 fewer than might have been expected on a decent night. Possibly for the first time in this terminable lead-up to the Real McCoy, it felt like football season. For Nathan Buckley, a confirmed football junky, it can't come soon enough.
© 1996 The Age