By Michael Roberts 1:54 PM Fri 05 Oct, 2007
Nathan Buckley
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Click here to watch the Nathan Buckley press conference on CTV - part one
THE arguments over 'best ever' players in sport are usually as spirited as they are futile: comparing players from different eras is just about impossible.
At the Collingwood Football Club, however, these arguments carry extra weight. This is a club that places a huge emphasis on its history and celebrates its past champions as few other do. So the tag of 'greatest ever Collingwood player' is not one to be bestowed lightly, even by fans in the outer.
For many years, that honour has, by general agreement, been given to the late Bob Rose – a skilful, tough, brilliant rover in the 1950s who later achieved iconic status at Victoria Park for his stints in coaching and administration, and for his values as a person.
The club had some magnificent players before the Second World War – Dick Lee, the Coventrys and Colliers, Des Fothergill and Ron Todd – but they played too long ago to make an accurate comparison possible. So assessments are necessarily limited to the past 60 years.
In that time, Rose is regarded as No.1. Len Thompson won the most Copeland Trophies. Peter Daicos and Phil Carman were the most freakishly talented. Peter McKenna the most popular. Guys like Des Tuddenham and Tony Shaw were the hardest workers, and the heart-and-soul.
Then there's Nathan Buckley.
Buckley has somehow managed to combine elements of so many of Collingwood's other post-war champions. He's now eclipsed Thommo for most Copelands and won a Brownlow and a Norm Smith as well. He's been as popular as McKenna, he's worked as hard and provided as much inspiration as Shaw and Tuddy and he's as talented as Carman and Daicos. It's a formidable package.
The 1990s were a particularly bleak period in Collingwood's history, but Buckley – along with Scotty Burns – stood tall in those troubled times and in many ways held us together as a club. He then somehow lifted his game another notch around the turn of the century. Rarely can any player in AFL history have played at such a consistently high level for such a long period of time.
Initially not a natural leader, Buckley became one of this club's truly great captains. He could inspire and cajole by words as well as by deeds, and he was always harder on himself than any other footballer going around.
The fans loved him – and they love him still. Not just for his skill, as a player but also for what he gave each week, for his commitment and his drive and his passion. To see the standing ovation he was given just for running onto the field against Sydney this year was to witness one of the most emotional moments of the footy year.
He did not finish with a Premiership medal, but that was through no fault of his: he could not have done any more to bring a flag to the Pies.
So as Collingwood finally faces the reality of a future without Nathan Buckley wearing the famous No.5, where does he sit in the Magpie pantheon?
For me there is no doubt: he sits comfortably right up there alongside Bobby Rose. At Collingwood, there can be no higher praise.
Michael Roberts is a Collingwood historian and author of a number of books about the club.
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