Bucks Says No Thanks: North’s Coaching Search Goes From Bad to Worse

So Nathan Buckley has had a good hard look at the North Melbourne job and decided, nah, he’s right thanks. Can you blame him?

Word is Bucks has pulled out of the race for the Arden Street gig, and honestly, it’s just the latest twist in what’s becoming one of the messiest coaching searches we’ve seen in yonks.

Another One Bites The Dust

Let’s be honest, this North search has had more false starts than a Carlton finals campaign. Names have come and gone, speculation has run rampant, and now the bloke who coached my beloved Pies for the best part of a decade has decided Arden Street isn’t for him.

Is that a shock? Not really. Is it a blow for North? You’d reckon so.

Buckley knows what it takes to rebuild a club. He lived it at Collingwood through some lean patches before we got our house in order. He’d have gone into Arden Street with his eyes wide open about what sort of rebuild job it actually is.

And maybe that’s exactly why he’s walked away.

Why Would He Say No?

Put yourself in Bucks’ shoes for a second. You’ve already done the hard yards at one rebuilding club. You know how brutal it is when the footy media and the keyboard warriors turn on you the second results dont come.

North aren’t exactly flush with early draft picks and list depth right now. It’s a tough gig, full stop. Why would any sensible coach walk into that without being absolutely certain the club’s list management, footy department and board are all pulling in the same direction?

You could argue Buckley’s seen enough from the outside to know this one needs a braver stomach than most. Fair enough too.

What This Means For North

Here’s the thing that should worry Roo supporters. Every time a genuine contender steps away from this process, it makes the next bloke on the list ask themselves exactly the same question Buckley just did.

Carn the Pies might be my cry every week, but I’m not about to pretend I don’t feel for North fans here. They’ve watched this saga drag on and on, and every twist makes it feel less like a club confidently choosing from a strong field, and more like a club getting knocked back.

That’s not a good look for anyone involved.

• The longer this goes, the more it looks like North are scraping the barrel
• Players want clarity, not limbo, heading into pre-season
• Rival clubs are watching and licking their lips over the disfunction

Would Buckley Have Even Been The Right Fit?

Now here’s where I’ll cop some heat from the Collingwood faithful, but I’ll say it anyway. Would Bucks actually have been the right man for that job?

He’s a premiership coach who knows how to win big games when the list is right. But North isn’t chasing flags in year one, they’re chasing patience, structure and a four or five year vision. Different job entirely to what he inherited and eventually mastered at the Pies.

Maybe Buckley himself worked that out. Maybe this isn’t a blow at all, maybe it’s actually a sensible decision for both parties that just reads badly in the headlines.

I reckon thats more likely than people want to admit.

Spare A Thought For Arden Street

Still, you’ve got to feel for the Roos faithful in all this. Every supporter deserves a bit of certainty and direction, and right now North are getting neither.

It’s not like this is a club flush with success stories either. They need a strong appointment, not a desperate one. The worst outcome here would be panic hiring just to end the headlines.

Does the AFL itself need to start looking at how these processes drag clubs through the mud? Probably. It’s not a great look for the competition when one club’s coaching search becomes the main storyline for weeks on end.

The Bigger Picture For Rival Clubs

From where I sit at Collingwood, we’ve had our own coaching dramas over the years, so I’m not about to throw stones from a glass clubrooms. We know how messy these processes can get when speculation outpaces reality.

But there’s a difference between a club working through genuine options and a club watching contender after contender quietly back away. The optics on this one are rough for North, whether that’s fair or not.

Every week this drags on is a week North can’t properly plan their pre-season program, their list strategy, their everything really. Coaching uncertainty seeps into every corner of a football department.

What Happens Now?

So where does this leave Arden Street? Back to the drawing board, basically.

They’ll need to widen the net, maybe look at some left field options, maybe even reconsider candidates they’d previously ruled out. None of that is a great sign four months out from a new season starting.

Buckley walking away doesn’t necessarily mean the cupboard is bare. But it does mean North’s board have some serious questions to answer about why their pitch isn’t landing with blokes who’ve done the job before.

As a Collingwood supporter, I’ll admit there’s a small selfish part of me that’s relieved Bucks isn’t walking straight into a rival den either. Footy’s a funny game like that.

Either way, North needs to sort this out fast. The clock’s ticking, the fans are restless, and every day this saga continues it just adds another layer of doubt about the clubs direction.

Carn the Pies, but genuinely, I hope North get this right. The competition needs a strong North Melbourne, not a club stuck in perpetual crisis mode.