Even Buckley suggested in June that this negotiation over his future was a two-way street. Indicating that it may be the coach who calls it quits. But that seems highly unlikely.

Because Buckley, despite his to date unsuccessful AFL coaching career, loves his job. And he loves Collingwood. And he is driven in his belief that, despite all evidence to the contrary, he is headed in the right direction. That it is not - and he would be right here - all his fault.

Just as Buckley will not listen to those friends horrified at his treatment by Collingwood, he did not listen more than seven years ago when he was advised by key people in his camp ??? although not Craig Kelly ??? to coach elsewhere before coaching the Magpies. On the day Eddie McGuire and Gary Pert announced the Mick Malthouse-Buckley succession plan, the coach-in-waiting declared "this is where I want to be". As it remains, despite the turmoil. Turmoil over an administration that has festered and blundered. Turmoil over the fact the club has been torn over whether to offer the coach a new deal.

You could see the stress on McGuire's face when he fronted the media after Tuesday's pivotal board meeting. McGuire, having declared he was going nowhere at Collingwood and having regained his mojo with an impressive return to The Footy Show, faces one of the great challenges of his presidency. He has backed himself against the scrutiny of a three-tiered review to fix the club off the back of ??? to be brutal ??? several years of treading water. He wants to give Buckley another chance but knows he has to make it work. His old-new football lieutenant Geoff Walsh knows it, too.

Walsh is old-style and tough. He can deliver a spray as brutally as anyone in football but the impression is that he has been trying to find ways to save Buckley's coaching career. And that tells you that Walsh, having worked with Buckley in his early days, still firmly believes in him as a coach. When he left Collingwood the first time it was due to issues with the board and the CEO, not Buckley.

My colleague Michael Gleeson questioned this week whether the commentary within the club has been skewed too strongly towards making Buckley a better coach. Certainly the primary focus of Walsh's review should be about making Collingwood a better team.

But Buckley is no ordinary coach and Collingwood are no ordinary club. And, like the Tigers last season, the Magpies have been a mess over recent years. The Richmond review identified that Damien Hardwick and his occasional stubborn unwillingness to take advice was only one small part of the problem.

The football department at Collingwood was disconnected with the administration and there was a toxic element permeating the place, which turned poisonous when Gary Pert was forced to explain to Neil Balme - surprise, surprise - that he was being demoted to make way for Graeme Allan.

And the list-management team was so clunky - McGuire and Pert both served on it along with, among others, the coach, recruiting chief Derek Hine, who delivered a premiership team, and the football boss, who regularly changed - that no one can explain how they ticked off the four-year, $2 million deal for Chris Mayne.

That is history and unfortunately for Pert a disproportionate amount of blame will be squared at him for the club's failings now that he has left. The spin that surrounded the packing of the CEO's bags was gold-medal worthy - comparable to the club's clever handling of Heritier Lumumba's revelations surrounding some of his more negative experiences at Collingwood.

Lumumba has been portrayed privately and publicly by the Pies as a sad and troubled figure who needs help. McGuire has that way avoided questions regarding his role in Lumumba's downfall. But even those former Magpie players disappointed to the point of anger that they might be portrayed as racist in his forthcoming SBS documentary have generally agreed that at times Buckley lacked - as Lumumba told him - emotional intelligence. Buckley conceded that accusation had been squared at him several times before.

But separating the two words is a different matter. Buckley is intelligent. And when it comes to Collingwood, he is emotional. And despite his club's poorly conceived succession plan and its clumsy handling of his future there is still no place he'd rather be.

Whether it's a new game plan, a better development team, a new team of assistants, a coaching director or all of the above Buckley deserves one last chance to prove he can coach. And work to be less stubborn and continue to fine tune his style. Over the next two seasons.

And any suggestion of a one-year deal must be rejected because even a media performer as good as him could not endure another season on the brink like this one.