![Captain and coach: Scott Pendlebury and Nathan Buckley.](/web/20170427233909im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/s/y/a/i/image.related.landscape.460x307.gvt6yk.png/1493246596044.jpg)
Buckley's quest is Collingwood's prayer
Nathan Buckley's hope is his club's prayer as the search continues for an answer to Collingwood's disappointing start to the season.
Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on ‘Boots for Kids’. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victoria’s cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books - five sports books and two true crime books.
Nathan Buckley's hope is his club's prayer as the search continues for an answer to Collingwood's disappointing start to the season.
Collingwood was close but also 'a mile off', locked in a cycle of the same problems that were killing the team, the club's frustrated coach and captain said after the Anzac Day loss to Essendon
Melbourne again gave up a match winning lead, but this time didn't give up, they were depleted before being defeated. Richmond conceded a match-defining lead, but never conceded.
Melbourne will have to think laterally to come up with a contingency plan to deal with another injury to a ruckman, said coach Simon Goodwin, after second ruck Jake Spencer suffered a shoulder that is likely to sideline him for some time.
Hawthorn simplified their game after players had lost their way in the horrendous opening month to the season, said ruckman Ben McEvoy.
West Coast didn't "roll over" in the second half of their loss to Hawthorn; rather, they were just broken by the Hawks, Eagles coach Adam Simpson said.
Hawthorn have finally won their first game of the year downing the Eagles in a comfortable win at the MCG.
Hawthorn coach upset by suggestions that Cyril Rioli wanted to quit football and return to the Tiwi Islands.
Daniel Menzel missed 94 games with four knee reconstructions. He is the 25-year-old with more scope to improve than any in the game. He could yet join the elite.
AFL players would get a pay rise this year of almost 25 per cent after the league put forward a revised offer to the players union in the protracted pay talks recent days.
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