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COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley is confident the Magpies can return as a top-four force sooner rather than later.
The Magpies missed the finals for the first time since 2005 this season but victories against top-four teams Sydney, Port Adelaide and North Melbourne were cause for optimism, Buckley said.
“My expectations and the expectations of the team are high,” he said.
“We believe we showed in the first two thirds of last year, even with a pretty young side, that we are capable of playing some football that beats top-four sides.
“We clearly aren’t a top-four side but we want to head towards being in contention as soon as possible, whether that’s 12 months, 24 months or 36 months, well that’s going to be a product of what the boys put in.
“The best four sides in the competition of 2013, we beat three of them, so we aren’t far away but we do need to be able to put it all together and we do need to do it for a whole season.”
Having just guided the club’s first-to-fourth-year players through a week-long camp at Falls Creek, Buckley said the Magpies’ young brigade would lead the push for a return to the competition’s elite.
The Magpies head to the draft later this month armed with pick five having already secured father-son selection Darcy Moore.
Top-10 selections from last year Matt Scharenberg and Nathan Freeman are yet to play after being struck down by injury.
“We are very confident in the character of this young group,” Buckley said.
“The power base of our club is going to sit with these guys for a long time.
“The same group 12 months ago came back in quite poor shape.
“Twelve months on, we had 16 players run a two-kilometre time trial and eight of them were PBs.”
We clearly aren’t a top-four side but we want to head towards being in contention as soon as possible, whether that’s 12 months, 24 months or 36 months, well that’s going to be a product of what the boys put in. NATHAN BUCKLEY