NATHAN Buckley maintains he has no regrets over saying a top-eight finish is the benchmark for the Pies and his coaching performance this season, believing his struggling side can still feature in the finals.
The under-fire Pies are languishing with just one win from their first five games and face an unbeaten Geelong on Sunday in what Buckley described as a "David and Goliath" contest after just a five-day break.
And pressure continues to mount on Buckley's position as coach, particularly given his public admission last August that a fourth straight season out of the finals could spell the end of his coaching career at the club.
The former club great and Brownlow medallist said he stood by the comments that have tied his future to the finishing position of the Pies.
"I've always had fairly high expectations," Buckley said on Friday.
"I'm not saying we're high performing at the moment, but high performers everywhere always put a little bit more pressure on themselves than others do. It's a reality in the industry.
"We've had a really good week. We've emphasized the things we're doing OK, we've identified a couple of the areas and themes we really want to continue to work on and we believe that if we get that right that we're going to be pretty hard to beat."
Magpies president Eddie McGuire this week stood by Buckley following the club's disappointing loss to Essendon on Anzac Day, saying "there has been no greater servant of the Collingwood Football Club".
"There is no better person to have our club's future in his hands than Nathan Buckley," McGuire said.
Buckely said the support he had been given individually this week had been comforting.
"I'm going OK. I have great support internally and I've actually been asked [how I'm going] a fair bit this week in particular," Buckley said.
"I actually probably think about it more when people ask about it than when I'm in my quiet moments. I'm extremely fortunate to be leading the footy club at this stage and the reality is I've got a job to do and I'll get assessed on the ability to do that job, which comes down to wins and losses.
"[That's] where I was coming from last year (with the comments). [The pressure] is definitely still outside the four walls.
"We're actually still in control of our destiny and until that's not the case, you don't lift your eyes or take your focus off the things you can actually impact on."
The Pies' only win this season was a one-point victory over winless Sydney at the SCG, but they have been competitive in defeats to Richmond, the Western Bulldogs and the Bombers. They are one of four sides with just one win so far this season, but Buckley said it remained their goal to play in September.
"We're still aiming to play finals. We're 1-4 and we play a top-of-the-table Cats team. That's as far as we can afford to look. We've got some pretty good players and some players who are playing some pretty important roles for us," Buckley said.
"I think we're not far off … and we'd like to show that it's not far off. But it's a matter of how we go about it and what we do.
"I can't argue against what we've put forward at this point. But what we have put forward has been a largely competitive unit that has just been 'not quite' so we're going to keep working on that."
Buckley backed skipper Scott Pendlebury to return to form after a down day against the Bombers, and ruled out the captain carrying any injury into the contest.
Pies youngster Tim Broomhead will play against the Cats after receiving a heavy knock against Essendon, and while Jordan De Goey will be available for selection next week after his club-imposed suspension, Buckley said it isn't "fait accompli" the No.5 draft pick will come straight into the line-up to face Carlton in round seven.
"He needs to play really good footy and prove he deserves to play in the senior side," Buckley said.
"It's fait accompli. The VFL performance, it was bad timing, but it was a really poor performance from our VFL. There wasn't a lot of hands that went up in the air and said 'Pick me'.
"And Jordy, if he was available, probably wouldn't have got a game on the back of that performance. He knows where he stands. It's off weight of performance."
