SCOTT Pendlebury has opened up about the pressure on Collingwood last season amid uncertainty over Nathan Buckley's future, with players fearing the coach could be sacked at any moment.

Buckley entered 2017 in the final year of his contract and under the pump after three straight campaigns failing to reach the top eight.

The scrutiny on the Magpies was enormous and skipper Pendlebury revealed the anxiety that hung over the players as Buckley's future was debated.  

"I think every player was worried every week because you didn't know," Pendlebury said on the Jock and Journo podcast.

"I wouldn't have been shocked either way if round three he was re-signed, or round three he had have got the arse because you just didn't know.

"There was just so much pressure on this football club.

"Credit to how he handled himself last year, I thought he was brilliant."

While the Pies missed finals again last season, the club stood by their favourite son, re-signing Buckley for two more years last August.

"I've always been an advocate of re-signing him and I think we should have done it earlier last year," Pendlebury said.

"Every day there was a camera here waiting. Whether we won or lost there were cameras here, there was people getting hounded.

"It was the subject of the football club, regardless of how well or poorly we were playing.

"The difference this year is it feels like we're back to being a football club that not everyone is talking about us every single day.

"You don't want to say people were walking around on eggshells, but no one knew what was going to happen and that's pretty unsettling for a playing group.

"And it wasn't (just) Bucks, it was all the coaches as well."

Even as the side slumped to 13^th on the ladder, Pendlebury believed in Buckley and was confident the Pies could rebound with more luck on the injury front and time to gel.

After 10 rounds this season, Collingwood is a strong chance to break its finals drought, sitting eighth (6-4) with Fremantle, Melbourne, Carlton and Gold Coast to come either side of the bye.

"It's always better when you're winning, I think that fixes a lot of problems, but the way we're playing is the thing we're enjoying the most," Pendlebury said.

"There's excitement, there's run and dare, there's creativity. But there's still that element that makes Collingwood Collingwood, that high-pressure side, tackle, chase, harass and turn the game into a real arm-wrestle.

"But we've added flair."

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