WHILE Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley is unsure of his position in charge of the Magpies, he says he has hope after leading his side to a 16-point victory over Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday.
"Do I have a feeling? I have a hope," Buckley said post-match.
Buckley is one of the focal points of a review at the club, after a disappointing year yielded a fourth-straight season out of the finals.
The under-pressure coach could not shed light on his future at Collingwood, but said he expected many changes to occur over the next four to six weeks.
"Inevitably, even good people come and go, but the challenge of an organisation is to continue to build and develop the individuals within it," he said.
"That's our challenge if we want to get where we want to get to, but there's going to be change, it's inevitable."
Five talking points: Collingwood v Melbourne
Unsure whether or not he had coached the Magpies for the last time, Buckley highlighted that he would not be in charge forever.
"Whether that's the case or not, we're only ever in the chair for a period of time," he said.
"In 20 years' time it would be very unlikely that any of us will be sitting in the same chairs and the players will have been turned over and will go."
WATCH: Full Nathan Buckley post-match press conference
Buckley said that while his side showed more consistency this year, it didn't deserve a finals berth.
"You get what you deserve and we'll get better when we deserve better and put the work in," Buckley said.
"It's bittersweet on a night like tonight where you've had a good result in the short term, but that's it, the music's stopped for this year."
Despite the disappointing season, Buckley was pleased that the Magpies withstood a late charge from the Demons after falling short in similar circumstances to Geelong last week.
"We said at the end of last week after going down to Geelong that we wanted to sing the song one more time," he said.
"To be able to show in that seven-day period the growth and the maturity to be able to handle a side coming back at us was really encouraging and you've got to enjoy that."
Buckley said his team was out on their feet after half-time, but showed good courage to fight out the narrow win.
"We had six or seven blokes that were on one leg, but I just thought that the ticker of the group was enormous," Buckley said.
Looking to the future, whether he is present or not, Buckley sang the praises of his younger players, particularly father-son selections Callum Brown and Josh Daicos.
"The great thing about those two is they just love footy, and that might sound simplistic, but the more people you have that love footy, the better you're going to be."
