Read all the reviews to find out more about All I Can Be
This book gives you the facts – not just from yours truly, but also from family, friends, foes, teammates, coaches, opponents and critics, who shared their views and recollections with my coauthor Ben Collins. What emerges is a warts-n'-all account of my life. In fact, some of the material you'll find here isn't particularly flattering to me. But I've made no attempt to sanitise these reflections. I can handle the truth – the good, the bad, the ugly.
I'm not perfect – far from it – and I've been reminded of that more times than I care to remember. I've made mistakes, lots of them. But whatever I've done, rightly or wrongly, I've done with my very best intentions. I've also learned and improved from each experience – at least, I've tried to – which I see as one of my greatest achievements. I believe that's the way a life should be lived.
I never planned to subject myself to the process of writing a book, and it took a while for me to be convinced. I'd always thought there were two reasons why you'd write a book about yourself: either you want to set the record straight, or you want to make some money. Well, I don't particularly care about setting the record straight, and money's never been my motivation to do anything.
This book exists because I wanted to pay tribute to the game of football, and how good it's been to me. Without football, and the life lessons it has taught me, I'd be a completely different, less balanced, person. I also wanted to acknowledge how certain people and life experiences have shaped who I am.
This is me. My story. My life. I'm happy for you to draw your own conclusions. Who knows? You might even glean something from it to apply to your own life...
Nathan Buckley
2008
What the Greats have said about Nathan Buckley:
Mick Malthouse
Collingwood coach since 2000. Previously coached Footscray and guided West Coast to its first two premierships
'I've coached some wonderful players. Doug Hawkins was an unbelievable player at Footscray. (Glen) Jakovich was a wonderful player at West Coast, along with (Dean) Kemp and (Peter) Matera. But Nathan was probably the best all-round player I've coached.'
Tony Shaw
Collingwood's 1990 premiership captain who later coached the Magpies
'Nathan Buckley is one of the best people I've met in football. I also rate him as the best player I've seen at Collingwood.'
Leigh Matthews
Hawthorn great and a premiership coach at both Collingwood and Brisbane
'Greatness is very much an over-used term but it's apt when describing Bucks. There are really only a handful of truly great players each decade, and he certainly was one of them.'
Michael Voss
Three-time premiership captain of the Brisbane Lions and the newly appointed coach of the club
'I've had the fortunate task of playing on all the really great midfielders of the modern era when they have been in their prime. I've played on Robert Harvey when he won his Brownlows in '97-'98, Shane Crawford when he won his Brownlow in 2000, and Anthony Koutoufides when he was flying, and it's very difficult to separate them. But I think the difference between those guys – not so much Harvey – and Nathan Buckley is that Bucks has done it consistently, game after game, year after year after year. To me, that's a true champion. To perform at such a high intensity over such a long period of time, with the pressure he was under, I have absolute admiration for him. No other player in my time (1992-2006) was so good for so long.'
Dermott Brereton
Five-time Hawthorn premiership great and a teammate of Buckley's in 1995
'To achieve what Nathan did, he had to be a unique and incredible football talent. There are quite a few blokes that have those attributes, but what separates the elite players of the competition with the all-time greats is the mindset. And Nathan's mindset was to succeed. There was a fair bit of selfishness in there, and that was because he wanted to personally succeed, but it never really came at the expense of the team. He had that amazing mindset that he just had to succeed. It was the equal of (Gary) Ayres, (Michael) Tuck, those types of blokes that I saw as well, and they're household names and members of the (Australian Football) Hall of Fame. Nathan had it in his spades as well.'
Malcolm Blight
North Melbourne great who coached Geelong to three Grand Finals before guiding Adelaide to the 1997-98 flags
'I've got three things in my study that relate to footy, and one of them is an AFL Players' Association team, which was selected in 1999 by a panel of past and present players, and it nominated the best team of the previous 25 years since the inception of the AFLPA. The side was:
| B | Gary Ayres (Haw) | Stephen Silvagni (Carl) | Guy McKenna (WCE) | |
| HB | Bruce Doull (Carl) | Peter Knights (Haw) | Francis Bourke (Rich) | |
| C | Robbie Flower (Melb) | Greg Williams (Geel/Syd/Carl) | Keith Greig (NM) | |
| HF | Gary Ablett (Geel) | Wayne Carey (NM) | Malcolm Blight (NM) | |
| F | Dermott Brereton (Haw) | Tony Lockett (StK/Syd) | Kevin Bartlett (Rich) | |
| R | Simon Madden (Ess) | Robert Harvey (StK) | Leigh Matthews (Haw) | |
| IC | Shaun Rehn (Adel) | Wayne Schimmelbusch (NM) | Nathan Buckley (Coll) | Michael Tuck (Haw) |
When I see Nathan's name there, I think: 'Gee, that's a bit special'. He was only halfway through his career, and he achieved far greater things after that, both as a player and as a leader. He'd have to be in the best 50 of all time. I also think that Nathan set a new standard in professionalism and preparation. He might have been the first pro's pro.'
Robert Walls
Carlton great who later led the Blues to the 1987 premiership
'He's right up there among the best players I played with and coached. I'm talking in the category of Bruce Doull, Alex Jesaulenko, John Nicholls, Stephen Kernahan, Craig Bradley, and Stephen Silvagni at Carlton, and Garry Wilson and Bernie Quinlan at Fitzroy.'
'He's a wonderful ambassador for the game. Whenever you see Nathan Buckley talk to people, or you see him interviewed, you're never disappointed in his conduct and behaviour. A lot of blokes can play the game exceptionally well, but they don't all conduct themselves very well off the field. He does them both. He's just a class act.'