Voss, who has guided the Lions to fifth place on the ladder in his first year at the helm, believes Buckley’s leadership credentials make him the perfect candidate to slot into a head coaching role.
“He’s had the pressure of being the captain of the Collingwood Football Club and he’s had that constant pressure since the day he walked into the Brisbane Bears back in 1992,” Voss said.
“If there’s anyone who’s able to step up ... it will be Nathan.”
Voss and Buckley spent a year together playing at the Brisbane Bears in 1993 before Buckley headed south to Collingwood.
Later, the pair were opposing captains in two AFL grand finals in 2002 and 2003, both won by the Brisbane Lions. Buckley won the Norm Smith Medal in the first of those losses, just shading the inspirational Voss for the award.
Voss said Buckley should back himself if he believes he’s ready for a senior coaching role.
He says it all depends how much preparation Buckley has done over the past two years.
“If there’s one thing I know about Nathan Buckley, it’s that he wouldn’t have sat there for the last two years waiting for his opportunity,” Voss said.
“He’d be doing things behind the scenes that we don’t even know about and he would have been trying to skill himself so he could be capable enough.”
Voss says the leadership principles of a player and coach apply the same.
“Ultimately they (coaches) do need leadership qualities and Nathan has that in spades. It’s being able to apply that in a different form from player to coach and that’s the difficulty,” Voss said.
The Lions will get some much-needed defensive leadership back against Melbourne at the Gabba on Saturday night, with the return of Joel Patfull (jaw) and Daniel Merrett (ankle) from injury.
However rebounding defender Josh Drummond (calf) is still in doubt and was due to resume training on Monday after a couple of weeks on the sidelines.
“He’s really got to test it (calf) out over the course of the week and if he’s not ready to go by Wednesday we’ll pretty much pull the plug,” Voss said.
Voss will now leave Daniel Bradshaw at full forward, but he still wants to find room for Jason Roe and Lachlan Henderson, who shut down Hawthorn big guns Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead in Tasmania last round.
“I mean they didn’t do just a good job, they did an outstanding job against two absolute guns in the competition, and having the continuity of those guys playing and in good form is going to help us,” Voss said.
Voss has expressed his support for the bye weekend, even suggesting there should be two byes per season, after rounds eight and sixteen, so intensity levels on the field remain high.
However the Lions coach believes the major concern about the bye is that the players are now too comfortable.
“I don’t like comfortable. Comfortable leaves a little bit of a chill down the spine because sometimes that can create complacency and we’re certainly not at that stage,” Voss said.
