No No No No No No!
The incredible number of injuries is NOT an excuse for Buckley! How can it be that he's been the only coach EVER to have 6 straight years of crippling injury lists and it's just "Bad Luck"! I can't find any example of this happening to any coach EVER for THREE straight years! Two, is very uncommon, and it didn't happen to Mick twice in a row ever. But FIVE in a row! And from year 1?! Every year of his tenure, without a single break!? And it hasn't been for parts of years, it's been ALL of EVERY season he's been coach!
He has been completely unable to instill confidence in the group, and this year was the worst example. Couldn’t kick, mark, tackle, handball. If he's finally managed to start learning how to do it, great! Fantastic! But how can you ignore 5 years of abject failure!? I'll be stoked if he's starting to learn some of the basics of coaching, but what were 2012, 13, 14, 15? Warm-ups? Does ANYONE here believe for a second that some assistant coach from Geelong would've been given FOUR years of ever-worse performances to get the hang of it? If you're being even half-honest you have to admit that such a person would've been watched very hard in the first 2 seasons and be dumped during or after the third!
Look at the precedents! Mark Neeld, Sanderson, Watters, and others have only been given 1-3 seasons to turn dud sides around, Dean Laidley took over from Pagan in '03 (who only missed finals in 1 year after 3 GFs and 2 flags!), His first 2 years were both 10th spot, and he was gone. Everyone said it, in '05 it was finals or the front door. They made 5th, but missing in 2006 put him back on his last chance, but lo! Finals again in '08 & '09 saved him... briefly.
Brad Scott took over a side which was 13th, and got them into the finals in 2 years.
It's now conceivable, because of this great turnaround not lasting, that he could drop us further again this season - AND keep his job!
Think about it. If we went down to Brizzy at the Gabba, the pressure on him would've doubled, 2 games later he's the lord god all-freakin-mighty!
We could STILL finish last in 2016, and we could still finish second.
If we keep winning, great! That's all I want, I don't care if Hermann Goering is coaching! But I very much doubt I can ever forget - whatever happens from here - the 4 unnecessary years in the wilderness. Maybe when he delivers 4 straight flags!