Nathan Buckley has dismissed claims by Kane Cornes that Collingwood “gave up” on Jack Ginnivan, following the Magpies’ decision to trade the young player, which backfired significantly. On Saturday, Ginnivan excelled against his former team, achieving career-highs with 31 disposals and four clearances, and scoring two goals in Hawthorn’s 66-point victory.
Ginnivan has thrived at Hawthorn this year, enjoying more freedom than he had at Collingwood. The 21-year-old played a key role in helping the Magpies win the premiership in 2023 but was traded to Hawthorn after a falling out with coach Craig McRae.
Ginnivan previously expressed feeling too restricted at Collingwood and praised Hawks coach Sam Mitchell for providing him with more flexibility in the forward line. On Monday, former Port Adelaide player Kane Cornes criticized Collingwood, saying they “gave up” on Ginnivan too soon and should have supported him longer.
“Essentially they gave up on him. He’s now 21 years of age and Hawthorn are saying, ‘Ok, this guy has got something’,” Cornes said on SEN radio. “He may not be perfect but Collingwood gave up on essentially a 20-year-old because of a couple of things off the field that many young players go through.
“Now he’s at a team that fully embraces what he’s able to do, the attributes that he has and the way that he plays in and amongst a system that allows the players to play with a bit more freedom. He had 30 disposals, which is a career high, and the most he ever had at Collingwood was 20. Clearly, they pigeon-holed him into a role that didn’t fully suit the attributes that he’s got.”
Nathan Buckley dismisses claims regarding Jack Ginnivan and Collingwood
But former Collingwood player and coach Nathan Buckley pointed out that Ginnivan helped the Pies win a flag and refuted the claim that they gave up on him. “Do you think that Jack and the football he is playing now might actually be a product of the lessons that he’s learned over the last 12 months?” Buckley asked.
“I think he’s going extremely well, by the way. That’s all credit to him and it’s all credit to Hawthorn, but I don’t think there needs to be any denigration of Collingwood or how they brought him up, the opportunities they gave him, the system that he played in.
“If you’re talking from a pure football sense, there was a game where he actually went into the midfield that year. He has midfield traits. His ability to get in and under to get his hands on the ball. But he’s got to build his tank. He’s running pretty well at the moment, but he will develop his tank even further. I see midfield scope in him eventually.”
Cornes questioned how Collingwood didn’t see the possibility of playing Ginnivan more in the midfield. “They may well have, but it was probably a little bit more behavioral and off-field that they may have had concerns on,” Buckley said. “None of us are privy to that because that would have happened inside the four walls more often than not.”
Coach Craig McRae was publicly critical of Ginnivan’s decision to attend the races the night before last year’s grand final, even though the youngster wasn’t drinking or doing anything untoward. Ginnivan then dressed up as a jockey for the club’s Mad Monday celebrations, which appeared to be the final straw for McRae.