COLLINGWOOD heads into the bye with two consecutive wins under its belt, and outgoing coach Nathan Buckley believes the future is bright.
Buckley announced his resignation last Wednesday, with Monday's upset 17-point triumph over Melbourne marking his last game in charge.
Assistant coach Robert Harvey will take the reins for the rest of the season.
"I think in the last month we've played solid footy. We've slowly added layers to our game, and we've found that connection. Nights like tonight, regardless of my situation, they build belief in the playing group," Buckley said in his final press conference.
"Jordan De Goey's played a lot of footy, but when he's … playing in the midfield, that's a significant impact. Brayden Maynard's played a lot of footy, but he should be stretching to become an All-Australian defender and has that capacity.
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"We spoke about Max Lynch, Jay Rantall, Trent Bianco, Nathan Murphy unfortunately had a corkie today but really gutsed it out for 40 minutes to try and help us out, Beau McCreery, Caleb Poulter – there's enough youth there who played this evening to be able to hang your hat on and go forward.
"'Pendles' (skipper Scott Pendlebury) isn't going to be there forever, Steele (Sidebottom) isn't going to be there forever, Jeremy Howe and Tay Adams still to come back, Brodie Grundy didn't play tonight, so we look a lot deeper now than we did six weeks ago, and that's due to experience and exposure.
"The group is capable of whatever it believes its capable of, and nights like tonight really open up the possibilities."
Buckley said he would celebrate with a few drinks tonight and had relished the opportunity to have his two sons take part in the post-match team song.
"We spoke about it pre-game, we just wanted to take the next step. My step is the last one for this aspect of the journey, and for them it's another one on theirs," he said.
"I've still got a lot of life to live, and I've still got passions to chase. Collingwood will always be a passion and I always want to see it – as an organisation and the people in it – prosper and I'll be supporting from afar. There's a little bit of open space and blue sky, it's just what you fill it with.
"The club goes into the bye and it's a good feeling to go into the bye with. They'll come out the other side and 'Harves' will take the reins and continue on its path. For me, I'll go in at some stage this week when no one's around and clear the office and consider what my next step is."
Simon Goodwin was disappointed in his side's poor performance, the ladder leaders losing to 16th-placed Collingwood.
"You never forget about things, you always want to learn from them and understand them, and I think what we learned today is our ability to use the ball effectively is an area we need to get better at," Goodwin said.
"It cost us defensively, it cost us on turnover, and they beat us in the stoppage game and they also beat us in the turnover game.
"There weren't too many things to like about our game, but that was one area that I thought cost us dearly, our ability to use the ball, especially inside 50."
Goodwin said Nathan Jones, Jake Melksham, Aaron vandenBerg and Neville Jetta were all pushing for selection with strong training form, while Jack Viney (toe) will be aiming to make his return after the bye.
