He is acknowledged as one of the great players of the modern game - someone who finds plenty of the football and someone who generally does something with it. He is Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley and he is certain to be a player who the Essendon match committee has spent plenty of time talkiing about in the past couple of days. While it is not a case of stop Buckley and you have stopped Collingwood - it is certainly a big help if he can be kept from getting the football for much of the game.

Essendon asssistant coach Robert Shaw is the man charged with looking at opposition sides and just how to best match up on them.""There is no doubt he can be a very damaging player and we have had to consider very carefully which way we go with him,"" Shaw said.

Last week Richmond's Duncan Kellaway tagged Buckley and did a very good job, restricting him to about 20 possessions and the Tigers duly went on to win the match. ""He really is the perfect type of player for Buckley - he is vice captain of the club, very experienced and a fitness fanatic. I think you need a player that is tough both mentally and physically,"" Shaw said. ""Kellaway isn't quite as quick as Buckely but he used his experience to stop Buckley getting the ball in areas where he could set up scoring opportunities.""

In round two this season Buckley got just short of 50 possessions yet the Magpies only defeated Fremantle by 17 points. Perhaps on that occasion Buckley didn't get a lot of the football forward of the centre where his impeccable foot skills invariably set up goal-scoring opportunities. That will be the challenge of the Essendon player given the task of playing on Buckley - he is obviously going to get the football, they just need to limit the amount of football he gets in the danger areas.

""Whoever gets the job will need to be very accountable and effective in the areas where if he gets the ball he will influence Collingwood's next scoring opportunity,"" Shaw said. ""And that is nothing new - it is the approach all clubs take with those quality on-ball players in opposition sides.""

Shaw said it was unlikely the Essendon match-committee would go with an out-and-out tagger on Buckley. ""Our philosophy is generally not one of negativity so it is highly unlikely we would sacrifice a player to simply run with Buckley,"" Shaw said. ""We know full well he is still going to get at least 20 touches so why run a player with him in a totally negative role - you are effectively playing one short.""

The Bombers have a number of players who could find themselves directly opposed to Buckley tomorrow. Mark McVeigh has tagged well at times this season and could get the nod again while Damien Peverill did an excellent job in his first game on Wayne Schwass. Adam Ramanauskas has also done the occasional run-with role and he might be the wildcard.

No matter who gets the nod they will know they have played a game of football when the walk off the MCG tomorrow afternoon. They will want to limit Buckley when the Magpies go forward and try and hurt him the other way. If they can do this job well the Bombers will be well on the way to victory.