Collingwood Magpies coach Nathan Buckley has addressed the ongoing speculation about boardroom unrest and said the club needs to embrace the changes that are underway.
Underperforming on the field is the least of Collingwood's problems as a feisty boardroom civil war following Eddie McGuire's resignation as president continues a messy and very public period for the club.
Buckley reflected on the reports of a coup against McGuire's replacement Mark Korda.
"I don't have a message for them. What I would say is that as a club we've gone through a fair bit of change and there's a little bit of pain going from what you've been to what you want to become," Buckley said.
"I think over the last four or five years, as an organisation, we've tried to change the way that we've gone about it. The review of 2017 was administration, football department and board it's probably taken that long to start to move towards those changes and there's a lot of change.
"There's a lot of change at board level, a lot of change in our football department as has been speculated on, or commentated on, there's change through our list, our list profile is very different this year to last … we're going through a regeneration, a reset, a different phase and I understand how we're open to criticism in the short term in that regard."
Buckley said unhappy fans need to back the sweeping changes taking place at the club since the damning Do Better report.
"They need to be energised and believe in the direction of the club – some of that comes from players, some of it comes from coaches and footy department and some of it does came from the board, so we're all accountable to that," he said.
"What I would say is that the board itself hasn't been sitting on its hands, it's made decisions to be better. Losing a big identity like Ed (former president Eddie McGuire) is not without its trauma and we're going through the process of resetting and settling off the back of that so I can understand that.
"The 'Do Better' report has been something that was challenged, the list management issue and losing players that we didn't want to lose is something that's there and it just gets rehashed and rewrapped, it doesn't serve us in the short term.
"But I trust that the board and the people that are governing the club are looking for what's best in its interests, both now and in the future."
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