Nathan Buckley

Nathan Buckley is  a famous Australian because he is a great  AFL player. He has won 3 Brownlow Medals.

If the football public needed any reminder, Nathan Buckley is one of the most talented players in the AFL competition. He achieved this during the international series played between Australia and Ireland at the end of the1999 season.            

Buckley, the captain of Australia, adapted better than any other Australian player to the shape and feel of a lighter round ball. Of course natural ability had plenty to do with it, but Buckley's hours of practice spent in the park equipped him to handle the modified version of the game.

 

 Nathan was once again Collingwood's leader in more ways than one during the 1999/2000 season. Despite missing five games after he fractured a jaw in round 2, Nathan was a runaway winner in the club's best and fairest award finishing with 401 votes, a whopping 125 clear of second placed Anthony Rocca. He was once again highly placed in the Brownlow Medal, finishing equal third with 20 votes, eight away from the winner Shane Crawford. In a year, he made the All-Australian team for the fourth year in a row. Nathan continued to perform at an exceptionally high and consistent standard. His powerful kicking, strong and clear-cut ball handling and possession winning ability, were a constant menace against opposing sides, as he was capable of going up 35-plus damaging touches on his best days.              
As a boy Nathan constantly moved around the country as his father Ray was a professional football coach. He played as ruckman for Woodville in the SANFL in the 1960's and 1970's. Nathan rebelled at the age of 14 and gave up footy to play tennis, then his father sent him to Victoria's Salesian College.
By 1991 he was in Port Adelaide's reserves as an 18 year-old and the following year he had progressed so rapidly that he won the 1991 Margarey medal for Best Footballer.