{"id":138180,"date":"2025-09-12T17:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/138180\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:27:07","slug":"nathan-buckley-speaks-on-melbourne-demons-coaching-role-steven-king-announced-new-coach-why-didnt-he-get-the-job-reaction-commentary-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/138180\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Buckley speaks on Melbourne Demons coaching role, Steven King announced new coach, why didn\u2019t he get the job, reaction, commentary, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley has spoken hours after Melbourne announced Steven King as their new head coach for 2026,<\/a> after firming as one of the final five contenders for the vacancy.<\/p>\n

Fox Footy commentator and veteran journalist Gerard Whateley broke the news of King\u2019s appointment on Friday afternoon, who usurped four other contenders for the top job.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Fox Footy in the build-up to the Adelaide vs. Hawthorn semi-final, the former Magpies coach was quick to congratulate the current Geelong midfield coach on his new appointment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFirst, congratulations to Steven King and the Melbourne Football Club for being able to make this appointment,\u201d Buckley began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked that question (of whether I would take the job today if offered). I said I needed until Wednesday morning. I\u2019m meeting with Tassie on Tuesday, and I needed a little bit more of an insight into that process, and their timeline before I was able to make a final call on whether I was willing to step into the Melbourne role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a couple of other things I was prosecuting and looking at as well, that as Gerard just detailed, when you\u2019ve been there before you\u2019re probably looking at a few different things than you would if you\u2019re a first time coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Demons\u2019 process to replace premiership coach Simon Goodwin was earmarked by some as a \u201cboat rate\u201d, which would have seen Buckley take the job if he wanted it.<\/p>\n

Steven King appointed Melbourne coach | 02:10<\/p>\n

But the 2003 Brownlow Medalist was a firm believer that their manhunt was run professionally and concisely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an honest process. It was a transparent process from my part for Melbourne and I; at no stage were we unaware of the reality of the situation, and I felt like it was respectful,\u201d Buckley continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI presented on Monday morning, and then went back for another chat on Thursday morning. The presentation was about \u2018who are you, and what\u2019s your coaching philosophy\u2019 \u2014 and then answer the questions for about an hour that they had.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot of to and fro, so it was a lot of information gathering from Melbourne. When you look at the process, it\u2019s happened really quickly from Monday morning \u2014 too quickly for me, and that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelbourne feel they\u2019ve got their man, and that\u2019s really all that matters for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And despite not banking the Melbourne coaching role, Buckley revealed he will still continue dialogue with inaugural Tasmania Devils chief executive Brendon Gale ahead of their anticipated arrival as the AFL\u2019s 19th team in season 2028. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been in place for a week and a half now, so I\u2019ll sit down with Brendon again. We\u2019ve had chats periodically along the way … there\u2019s still a little bit to play out, but that\u2019ll take place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley has spoken hours after Melbourne announced Steven King as their new head coach for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25584,94876,53433,94877,20536,94873,25297,94875,94870,10145,13659,61,2105,94871,43,7804,94872,26511,44,28885,3247,8014,26889,79260,94874,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-138180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-being-able","tag-boat-rate","tag-brendon-gale","tag-coaching-call","tag-coaching-job","tag-coaching-philosophy","tag-coaching-role","tag-drops-key","tag-final-call","tag-garry-lyon","tag-geelong-cats","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawthorn-semi-final","tag-headlines","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-midfield-coach","tag-nathan-buckley","tag-news","tag-premiership-coach","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-simon-goodwin","tag-st-kilda-saints","tag-steven-king","tag-time-coach","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}