Buckley was speaking after he sent midfield star Dale Thomas into defence against St Kilda on Friday night to cover the loss of Alan Toovey, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Essendon on Anzac Day.
Buckley said Toovey's loss on top of skipper Nick Maxwell's ongoing absence with a wrist injury meant he also moved Paul Seedsman, Martin Clarke and Tyson Goldsack into defence at times in the 26-point win.
"We're going to have to find different ways to defend while our captain, who is obviously a legitimate back-six player, is out," Buckley said.
"Alan Toovey, who's our best small defender, won't be back for the rest of the year, so our defence is going to look very different in the rest of 2013, or definitely in the next couple of weeks, than it has in the past.
"We're just going to keep finding players that can play those roles."
Buckley said his use of Thomas over the rest of the season would be determined on a round-by-round basis given the particular match-ups of that week's opposition.
But he said hoped the Magpies would be able to settle their defence and the rest of their team at "some stage" this season.
"As I said, Maxwell and Toovey out of our backline, (Luke) Ball and (Dayne) Beams still to come back into our midfield … that impacts on what our forward structure looks like when you get players back, and players have to shift and shuffle into different positions.
"Steele (Sidebottom) was well held tonight, 10 possessions, that was the first time that he's been down. 'Blairy' (Jarryd Blair) had one touch in the first half, so they're two of our four main midfielders going into the match.
"So we got contributions from blokes around there that were able to keep us in the game and eventually take control of it."
Magpie spearhead Travis Cloke grabbed a finger in pain after taking a contested mark over Saint Rhys Stanley late in the first quarter, but played out the match and booted four goals.
Asked about Cloke's injury after the match, Buckley said the forward had merely "jarred" a finger he had dislocated a couple of weeks ago.
Nick Bowen is a reporter with AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
