Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley understands that there is a negative perception of the club right now.
The Magpies pushed out four players on trade deadline day, namely Adam Treloar to the Western Bulldogs, Jaidyn Stephenson and Atu Bosenavulagi to North Melbourne and Tom Phillips to Hawthorn.
The Treloar and Stephenson trades in particular drew plenty of ire from the black and white army, some of whom have responded negatively to the club’s decisions.
Buckley addressed the situation with Gerard Whateley, admitting it was “brutal” and would create disapproval but necessary for the greater good of the club.
“There’s a lot of things we could have done better in the recent past and in particular over the past three or four weeks, potentially,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“But we are where we are and the decisions were made consciously and with the best intents for what is best for the football club.
“It’s brutal but we feel it was needed.”
Buckley was asked if the actions fail the club’s side by side mantra.
His response alluded to the reported salary cap issues the Pies are facing but overall he feels the rulings made will ultimately result in success for the club.
“That depends on your perspective. I understand how we’ve opened ourselves up to that criticism,” he added.
“My view is, and this has challenged my perspective, that we’re a very tight-knit group. The last three seasons have shown our capacity to come together and support each other. To support each other as people whilst understanding that we need to challenge each other as professionals.
“I think we’ve done that relatively well. We’ve been relatively successful without getting the ultimate.
“The biggest challenge in my role I found, and it’s a philosophical argument, is how do you honour the individual whilst doing what is needed for the whole? How do you provide love and care to the individual whilst making the decisions that you feel you need to make for the short, medium and long term futures of the football club.
“There are market forces in play. We can’t keep every person on our list, otherwise we’d have 120 blokes on the list. We can’t pay outside of the (salary) cap, otherwise we would have all the players we’ve ever recruited over my tenure, the last 10 years.
“By having to make these brutal decisions, which clearly are against the individual’s wants and needs, I feel like we are being side by side with what the remainder of the club, the players, coaches and staff, and the supporters, are looking for which is ultimately a club that succeeds on-field but the pride element off the field is important as well.
“There’s no doubt that right now that is being questioned and I understand that entirely.”
Buckley added further: “I’ve got no doubt that we will come together as a group and move forward from this without any lasting damage.”