NATHAN Buckley is close to signing a contract extension with Collingwood, with the Magpies keen to take any heat out of pre-season speculation.

Negotiations are being finalised on a new deal, which it's believed will ensure Buckley's future until at least the end of the 2017 season.

"It hasn't happened yet, but it will," Collingwood president Eddie McGuire told his Triple M radio audience on Tuesday morning.

"Once it's ratified by the board, then we'll be in a position to announce all elements (of the deal)," McGuire explained from San Francisco where he attended Monday's NFL Super Bowl.

"Gary Pert and Neil Balme are handling all elements of the negotiations.

"We've been talking, there's no worries, the club has had a very strong articulated plan over the last couple of years of rebuilding.

"We're pretty happy and confident where we are at the moment in what we needed to do from 2010, to where we are going into the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

"Nothing has been signed, and nothing has been fully decided just yet."

Buckley took over as Magpies coach from Mick Malthouse after the side's Grand Final loss in 2011.

It was meant to be a transition plan, orchestrated by McGuire, but it failed to materialise with Malthouse walking out on a three-year deal to remain as coaching director.

The Magpies finished 12th last season with 10 wins and 12 losses.

The move to have 43-year-old Buckley's medium-term future secured before the season will no doubt remove a key distraction ahead of the side's 2016 campaign.