During Collingwood’s downtrodden years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were two certainties its supporters could bank on.

One was a win against Fremantle at Victoria Park. The other was a ball-bursting performance from Nathan Buckley.

The man who is now the club’s senior coach made a habit of taking the fledging Fremantle to the cleaners on a yearly basis. Long before Dane Swan and Gary Ablett Junior made 40 possession games commonplace, Buckley would notch unbelievable statistics time after time as he helped guide his Magpies to a morale boosting win over the Dockers.

Collingwoodfc.com.au has picked out a selection of Bucks’ best performances against Fremantle below.

Round 15 1997
Collingwood 25.10 (160) def. Fremantle 9.6 (60) at Victoria Park

The Magpies entered the game riddled with uncertainty.

Firstly, they had dropped their previous six games after starting the season 6-2. Secondly, they were playing their final game at Victoria Park for the season and the doomsayers were murmuring that the match may be the venue’s curtain call. Finally, full forward Sav Rocca had been omitted on Thursday night after kicking only five goals in his previous five games. Rocca was only recalled at the last minute when Alex McDonald was a late withdrawal.

Enter Buckley.

The then 24-year-old had a feast in front of 23,433 diehards, gathering a then career-high 43 possessions, seven marks, three tackles and one goal, fuelling the side’s 100-point win.

Buckley saw off several opponents as he fed the Rocca brothers and Matthew Francis with pinpoint delivery. Big Sav broke his goal drought with nine goals, the last of which capped off a 10-goal final quarter.

One final statistical anomaly was the performance of Fremantle’s Kingsley Hunter. The hulking full forward kicked seven of his side’s nine goals (Andrew Wills managed the other two). It wasn’t the last the Magpie Army would see of Hunter at Victoria Park, either.

Round 10 1998
Collingwood 19.5 (119) def. Fremantle 17.10 (112) at Victoria Park

This was a day to savour for the 23,118 fans that crammed into the Abbotsford furnace.

Not only did Buckley and Big Sav again run amok, but the Magpies only won two more games until round eight the following season.

But this wasn’t the walk in the park that the Pies enjoyed the year before. Despite Buckley collecting 36 possessions (24 kicks, 12 handballs), two marks, four tackles, nine inside 50s and 13 clearances (which, by the way, weren’t enough to win him a single Brownlow vote), Fremantle led narrowly at each break and almost ran away with a famous victory.

Luckily, Rocca was on hand to save the day at full forward. He kicked a career-high 11.1 and had it not been for his accuracy, Collingwood’s five goal final quarter may have been in vain.

Hunter kicked another 5.1 for Fremantle at the other end and his ruckman Matthew ‘Spider’ Burton had an incredible 54 hitouts, 21 possessions and two goals against Damien Monkhorst and Matthew Francis.

Round Eight 1999
Collingwood 14.15 (99) def. Fremantle 8.11 (59) at the MCG

They might have been spared from their yearly Victoria Park beating but the Dockers still couldn’t manage to escape the might of Nathan Buckley.

On the coldest May day in over 30 years, a hardy 26,339 souls made the pilgrimage to the MCG to watch a battle of the cellar dwellers.

Last on the ladder and without a win to its name, Collingwood took a Fremantle team that had recorded its first win of ’99 the previous Sunday against Geelong.

Collingwood still had reason to believe. It hadn’t lost to Fremantle since round 19, 1996, and it had N.Buckley back on its team sheet.

In his first season as captain, Buckley had been forced to watch rounds three to six in the grandstand after breaking his jaw against Carlton on Easter Monday. And it didn’t take him long to get going.

Bucks had 26 possessions, nine clearances, eight inside 50s, 17 contested possessions and three goals as he guided his side to a 40-point win – its first of 1999.

Amazingly, 10 of Collingwood’s 22 players in that team had played in less than nine wins during their careers. In fact, only Damien Monkhorst and Glenn Freeborn entered the match with a winning percentage of greater than 50.

One player who ended the match with a winning record of 100 per cent was a man by the name of Tarkyn Lockyer. The West Australian rookie debuted at the age of 19, gathering seven possessions. He’d go on to average 18.19 in his next 226 games.

Round Two 2001
Collingwood 15.15 (105) def. Fremantle 13.10 (88) at Colonial Stadium

Of 280 games that Nathan Buckley played between 1993 and 2007, this one stands out statistically as his greatest performance.

In an otherwise forgettable round two clash under the Saturday night lights of Colonial Stadium, Buckley amassed a whopping 46 possessions (32 kicks, 14 handballs), eight marks (three contested), 13 inside 50s, eight clearances, 20 contested possessions and one goal.

It’s no surprise that Collingwood won with relative ease (17 points was the final margin), but without Buckley, who knows what Freo might have done?

After the match, the Herald Sun’s Michael Gleeson wrote that watching Buckley approach 50 possessions in the final quarter was “like watching Steve Waugh trying to scramble another ton before Glenn McGrath goes out at the other end”.

In the first year of Champion Data’s player rankings, Buckley scored an incredible 199 points.

Gleeson foreshadowed Buckley’s future when he wrote: “The dual role that died out of footy 20 years ago is back. Buckley is the closest thing to an on-field coach in the AFL”.

A decade later, Buckley would succeed Mick Malthouse as the club’s senior coach.

Of his captain’s performance, Malthouse mused: “He had a fair bit of it, didn’t he? Some blokes go three seasons and don’t have that”.

Round 15 2003
Collingwood 15.9 (99) def. Fremantle 7.16 (58) at the MCG

With Fremantle heading towards the first finals appearance in its history, this Saturday afternoon encounter took on greater meaning than those in years gone by.

But it was to take on an even greater dimension when Collingwood legend Bob Rose passed away in the lead up to the match.

Rose, 74, died after a short battle with cancer.

Buckley had taken a small group of Collingwood teammates to visit Rose to say their final goodbyes only a few days prior.

At Rose’s funeral, President Eddie McGuire told those gathered that Buckley was “a player that many people have commented on is probably the closest player to looking like Bob on the ground, and his playing style”.

It meant that the stage was set for a Buckley special. And poor old Fremantle was once again caught in the crossfire.

Now aged 30, Buckley earned another three Brownlow votes as he bulldozed his way to 33 possessions (30 kicks, three handballs), 13 inside 50s, seven clearances, two tackles and a goal.

Collingwood was never threatened, running out 41 point winners. Its intent was summed up by a Buckley tackle on Matthew Carr who hit the ground hard enough to make the 40,964 in attendance shudder.

Fittingly, Buckley joined Rhyce Shaw (the man who wore Rose’s famous No. 22) in leading the team off the field in tribute to one of the most revered figures in Collingwood’s history.