With a top-eight spot on the line, Collingwood capitulated against the Eagles to drop down to ninth place and leave its finals hopes in the balance.
The visitors were only competitive during the second quarter, in which Dayne Beams, Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom racked up big numbers.
"We didn't bring enough intent at the contest, we didn't bring enough work rate, we weren't prepared to roll the sleeves up," Buckley said.
Vote for your top three players from Collingwood's 60-point loss in the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award.
"And when I say, 'we', (I mean) every player. (I did) a quick straw poll of our playing group then against our trademark - attitude and effort – who's going to give themselves a tick? No hands. Zero hands. First time all year.
"To a man, all of them felt that they let the team down and you get a result like that."
Buckley said his team's effort had been reasonable in the past two weeks against Adelaide and Port Adelaide, but was left disappointed by Sunday's showing at Patersons Stadium.
"Clearly, we are in that final-eight mix, like West Coast, like a couple of other sides," he said.
"So with the knowledge of that as a carrot, same for West Coast as it is for us, the effort is especially disappointing. "
Buckley said he saw West Coast's inclusion of three ruckmen in the side as "an opportunity".
An injury to Xavier Ellis, which prevented the Eagles from subbing one of their talls out of the game, was another opportunity, he said.
But his team were "smashed" at the contested ball.
"We had some high possession getters, but they were directly opposed to high possession getters from the opposition," he said.
"It's not all about offence. We have actually focused a lot on our contests and on our ability to defend. We got sieved. (We) couldn't slow the opposition ball movement down. (We were) either too far back or too far up. And we paid the price."
While critical of the efforts of his midfielders, Buckley was particularly savage on his talls. Travis Cloke and Jesse White managed just one goal each, while Jarrod Witts was soundly beaten.
"Our talls were poor today. Both down back and up forward," he said.
"(They were) largely uncompetitive. (Jeremy) McGovern took 12 marks, (Eric) Mackenzie had Clokey covered. Just not enough work rate from our big units. (Witts) was overshadowed and overcome by their ruckmen, Jesse's efforts were a bit inconsistent. So our big fellas had a bad day."
He said some players would clearly have to be dropped to the VFL and both Brodie Grundy and Luke Ball would be in the mix for a recall to the senior team.
