The Magpies hit the front early in the final term at Patersons Stadium but folded meekly against an undermanned Fremantle side missing a host of stars, including ruckman Jonathon Griffin who was subbed off with a knee injury in the first quarter.
"Every game is a fork in the road, every contest is a fork in the road, every training session is a fork in the road. You can either choose to do it the right way or you buckle," Buckley said.
"At the moment we are not making the right choices often enough, consistently enough across enough people.
"That's a challenge any football club goes through and right now we've got a bit of work to do."
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Their 27-point loss included a terrible start where they fell 32 points behind at the first change and Buckley was clearly furious at the Pies' inconsistency.
"Good teams play consistent football and play their football for four quarters and we are not doing that," Buckley said.
'Therefore we have got to ask ourselves, 'Are we a good team?'
"We got in front, kicked the first goal of the last quarter then the last 25 minutes was like the first 15."
The Magpies had their own injury issues with small defender Marty Clarke subbed off with a corked thigh in the second term. It left them vulnerable and allowed Dockers goalsneak Michael Walters to chip in with four vital goals for the home side.
Buckley admitted his side had issues with covering elite small forwards and said it was imperative they found someone within their ranks who could shore up the defence.
But the fighter in Buckley suggested he was relishing the challenge of taking on Geelong next Saturday night at the MCG.
"We are black and white at the moment aren't we? That's where it is, we are four and three. We've played some pretty good sides, played some good football, played some poor football," he said.
"So we are asking ourselves a question at the moment where we want to go, what we want to do about our footy and where we see ourselves.
"We've got a good chance to come up against a side that is undefeated next week, that is our next test."
Buckley said Luke Ball and Alan Didak were "thereabouts" for inclusion next week but said the whole club needed to lift.
"One or two players aren't going to save this," Buckley said.
"It has got to be the collective who are going to work our way out of it game by game, quarter by quarter, contest by contest, training session by training session.
"We look to have a good week on the track, we review, we work out what we are doing well and what we need to fix and we move on. That's the game, that's the opportunity we've got in front of us."
