ONE of Nathan Buckley's best and worst traits is his perfectionism.

Buckley's brilliant, 280-game playing career amounted to an endless quest for perfection and he went closer than most individuals to achieving it, winning a Brownlow Medal and a Collingwood record of six best and fairests, being named an All-Australian seven times and induction to the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

For much of his career, Buckley demanded his teammates be similarly driven.

This created the major question mark over Buckley the coach – how would he cope with anything less than the highest levels of preparation and performance?

Here’s the short answer: he has handled it better in the past 18 months than he did in his first two seasons in the job.

In a chat with the AFL Record in the Westpac Centre café, Buckley revealed he has consciously become more realistic with his expectations at the request of his players.

"Some feedback I got from the playing group at the start of 2014 was: 'Aim for perfection, settle for excellence'," he said.

"They felt I aimed for perfection and expected perfection. But under that concept everyone was going to fail every time, including myself, because there's no such thing as perfection. I love the ideal but it's not realistic. We're human after all.

"(Pies captain) Scott Pendlebury can have 32 touches, 10 clearances and kick a couple of goals, but even 'Pendles' isn't going to get everything perfect.

"If we want to look for it we can find all the things that aren't perfect, and there are plenty of them, and that was part of my bent as a player and a leader.

"Whilst I'll always have high standards and expectations, I'm no longer on a quest for perfection.

"It was great feedback, and ever since then I've been far more mindful of the human element to what we're building.

"I want our players to understand their weaknesses and work hard on improving them, but don't become hung up on them."

Right now, things are less than perfect for the Buckley's Magpies. After touching excellence during narrow losses to flag contenders Hawthorn and Fremantle – blockbusters they had enough chances to win – the Pies' losing streak has ballooned to five (their worst since 2005-06), following further losses to Port Adelaide, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs. 

* Read the full version of this story in this week's edition of the AFL Record, available at all grounds.