JUST five days after being reappointed as Collingwood coach, Nathan Buckley shone unnecessary light on the decision to recruit Fremantle's Chris Mayne on a four-year deal that ends in 2020.
Buckley's words were poorly chosen and ended what had been a mostly positive week for the club on a negative note.
They also heaped pressure on a player that has been maligned all season, dismaying, with good reason, those close to the 28-year-old who was preparing to play a VFL final on Saturday.
"It's been a tough year for 'Mayney', and we've got some decisions to make going forward with that," Buckley said.
"It hasn't been a great result for the first 12 months."
'Mix up' with Mayne recruitment: Buckley
That it is has been a tough year for Mayne is not in doubt, making Buckley's comments even less understandable because right now most would conclude when it comes to discussion on the decision to recruit Mayne, enough is enough.
Friday's interview led to one immediate conclusion at least: the coach would be well advised to avoid microphones for the next couple of months until he has had a break and there is some forward-looking news to discuss.
He could also take a leaf out of Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson's book when it comes to backing his players publicly come hell or high water before he does hit the airwaves again because everyone benefits from such support.
That's not to say Mayne has performed at a high level since arriving but it's certainly not his fault that things are not turning out as promised and it is the club's responsibility to treat him well from hereon if they want to stay a destination club.
The 28-year-old joined Collingwood after being sold a vision for the role he could play up forward for the Magpies in October, with Mayne's camp claiming Buckley was a most persuasive voice in a presentation that showed the recruit's valuable assets statistically.
Although it's normal for coaches to sell hope, the Magpies pointed out they ranked Mayne the second-best forward in the AFL for pressure applied, in the top five per cent of forwards for average tackles a game and in the top 10 per cent of forwards for average marks a game.
Mayne thrown 'under the bus', says his dad
But it made Mayne's decision to join Collingwood a no-brainer as the coach also impressed on him the value his leadership could bring to a young forward group.
Little did Mayne know that he was being courted by a club that had a dysfunctional decision-making process with the administration, at that critical time, disrupting the football department's established recruiting systems.
President Eddie McGuire and CEO Gary Pert had installed Graeme Allan as football manager, removing Neil Balme from the post, making the list management committee, which also included Buckley, Pert and Derek Hine, less cohesive – to put it mildly – than such key decision-making groups need to be if they want to get more calls right than wrong.
Externally Allan has been made something of a scapegoat for the subsequent outcomes but sources on both sides say that would be unfair to the veteran football person.
He was, like all in the football department, operating in an environment that has subsequently sparked three internal reviews at the club with Buckley admitting on Friday the greatest improvement the club could make from now is to ensure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.
In the end, Mayne played just three senior games, laying 14 tackles and kicking two goals but he fought through a flat spot mid-season to impress many at the club with his attitude to playing VFL.
Now with Mayne probably looking forward to putting a tough year behind him, Buckley has once again opened the discussion, sparking an emotional response on social media from Mayne's father Steve, who is obviously concerned about his son carrying the can for a decision the club made.
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That's fair enough but it's done now.
What is needed is for both parties to sit down at the end of the season when emotion has cleared and map out a plan going forward.
If that means Mayne playing on as appears to be his intention, then everyone should attack it with a positive mindset.
After all, Buckley likes a challenge.
He might improve too if the club can, as promised through the review, get many more aspects of its football program right in the next two years.
If he decides to finish up, then no-one would begrudge him that decision and he can hold his head high for the way he conducted himself in 2017.
