Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has made honest admissions of his former club's handling of the Do Better report, which found "systemic racism within the Collingwood Football Club".
Buckley and fellow former football star Derek Kickett spoke openly on the report during Sunday night's airing of I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!,ย with the ex-Magpies coach admitting the club failed to handle the report and the subsequent media backlash appropriately.
"It wasn't communicated effectively," Buckley said.
"What the club wanted to try and get across through the media was that it felt like it was doing the right thing, that it was taking the right steps.
"You don't do badly for a long time and then go 'give us some credit for wanting to do better now'... that's probably where we got it wrong.
"It's really hard to know how to communicate it, because in the end, what I think our job is as a white privileged male is actually not to talk about it, it's actually just listen.
Sport is often seen as a window to social change.
This chat between Derek and Nathan elucidates some of the necessary changes needed within sporting culture and including First Nation and Indigenous voices. #ImACelebrityAU pic.twitter.com/oMFumKA0Kh
— #ImACelebrityAU (@ImACelebrityAU) January 9, 2022
"I didn't learn that until Heritier Lumumba forced it... until I was prepared to sit in it long enough to realise that 'hey, it's not about our story here'."
Kickett agreed with Buckley's message, stating that clubs fail to listen to their Indigenous staff members and players when attempting to shape their image of support for First Nation's people.
The 59-year-old said that clubs will only face further scrutiny if they continue not to listen.
"When you're talking about Aboriginal issues, who are the experts? People. It's Aboriginal people," Kickett said.
"That's why you're saying you've got to listen.
"I've been in that situation where there's an organisation and they're running Aboriginal programs but they're doing it wrong.
"I'm going to tell them and talking to the CEO, saying 'no, you've got to do this' and 'this is how you should be doing it'.
"You've gotta listen to what I'm telling you, because otherwise you're gonna get a bad reputation in the community.
"If you don't listen, you've got no chance."
Kickett added that he had constantly faced adversity and racism throughout his career, however believes the AFL is "slowly getting there".
"When I played I used to cop it just about every week," Kickett said.
"We're slowly getting there, but (there's) a long way to go."
Speaking separately in a piece-to-camera interview, Buckley said the conversation he held with Kickett was an opportunity he took great pride in, with the former Collingwood star revealing he too has plenty left to learn.
"In that convo, it provided an opportunity to get Derek's opinion to try and understand the challenge that the nation has around straightening up the attitudes towards Indigenous people," Buckley said.
"Having an elder statesman, who is an Indigenous man in the camp, is opportune for me, because I'm still trying to learn about where the steps forward are to work through this challenge that the nation has.
"Collingwood have put themselves at the front of that to be better and do better."
Buckley departed Collingwood midway through last year after 10 years as coach, adding to an extensive list of changes at the Holden Centre across the course of the past 18 months.
Former president Eddie McGuire stepped down from his duties shortly after the Do Better report was leaked, having stated it was a "historic and proud day" for the club in an infamous press conference that soon sparked further backlash.
