West Coast's offer to Nathan Buckley comes to light amid Eagles' hunt for next AFL coach

Nathan Buckley has reportedly knocked back an offer to become the West Coast Eagles' next coach, after an approach from CEO Don Pyke. The Eagles are on the hunt for their next senior coach after Adam Simpson's departure last month.

Jarrad Schofield is filling the role on an interim basis, and appears a candidate to take over full-time. But Channel 7 revealed on Thursday night that Pyke had rung Buckley to gauge his interest in taking the job.

Buckley is a Collingwood champion and coached the Magpies from 2012 to 2021. He's been linked to a number of coaching jobs in recent months, but reportedly told the Eagles he's not interested.

Mitch Cleary of Channel 7 reported: "Buckley was this week contacted directly by West Coast CEO Don Pyke to quiz him on the prospect of becoming the Eagles’ next coach. After a phone call that ran around 30 minutes on Wednesday, Buckley informed Pyke that he was yet to get his head around the prospect of a return to the coaches’ box and wouldn’t be taking part in the process."

Nathan Buckley unsure if he wants to return to AFL coaching

Buckley has also been linked to the new Tasmanian franchise, and recently admitted a return to coaching is "something I’m looking at". He said on SEN radio: “I’ve got no doubt I could do the job well, I’ve held that opinion since I’ve been out (in 2021). The thing that I am noting and observing is a reinforcement of how senior coaches are treated or mistreated on this side (the media).

“There’s a lot of crap. No (it’s not worse) but it’s just as bad. The emotion on this side of it, and the competition for opinions on this side of the ledger is not a surprise but it’s shocking. I’m sure Chris Fagan was somewhat aware of it, Luke Beveridge was, Matthew Nicks and Ken Hinkley in two-team towns, Justin Longmuir early in the season was copping it.

"I suppose you might witness it more when you’re in the position that we’re in where your perspective is 360 and you’re seeing it all. It doesn’t altogether paint a pretty picture of going into that space. You have to go through all that crap to get in there and then if you get in there you’re fine, but you know you’re going to have all that crap on the other side as well. I don’t know if I need that in my life, to be honest.”

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Ken Hinkley distances himself from West Coast job

Last month, Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley also distanced himself from the Eagles job. Hinkley, who is contracted to the Power until the end of 2025, insists he is solely focused on their task at hand.

"We've got a big job. We've got five games left in our season and hopefully more to play," he said. "It's really clear about one thing: I am coaching Port Adelaide and I love coaching Port Adelaide and I have a contract to continue to coach Port Adelaide."

West Coast have already had club legend and highly-rated Sydney assistant Dean Cox rule himself out of contention since Simpson's departure. Hinkley's assistant Josh Carr has also said he's not interested, while Schofield is among the candidates to take on the full-time role. Ash Hansen, Jaymie Graham, Brett Montgomery, Daniel Giansiracusa, Scott Burns and Andrew McQualter are thought to be among the contenders.

with AAP