Nathan Buckley slams Heritier Lumumba for 'throwing McGuire under the bus' during explosive row

Nathan Buckley accused Heritier Lumumba of ‘throwing Eddie McGuire under the bus’ after the former Collingwood star released footage of an explosive row between the pair on Twitter.

Lumumba is in the midst of a heated back-and-forth with the club having accused the Magpies of tolerating a racist culture, while on Monday he claimed that hardcore pornography was shown in a team meeting. 

Buckley refused to comment on the accusations when contacted by the Herald Sun, but told SEN Radio that he has ‘another version of the truth’.

‘There are other versions of the truth that are a long way away from the way that he perceives it,’ Buckley said on Monday.

Now, Lumumba has released audio footage of a tense conversation with Buckley back in 2014, in his last season with the Pies. 

McGuire had caused controversy by claiming that indigenous footy star Adam Goodes should be used to promote the musical King Kong, and Lumumba was unwilling to defend the former club president. 

In the clip posted to Twitter, Buckley says to Lumumba: ‘You threw him under the bus. You threw him under the bus, mate.’

Lumumba intervenes: ‘I didn’t throw him under the bus, and we can’t go through that again.

‘This is part of my issue, because you still believe that, and that’s what hurts me so much Bucks, and I know you’ve carried it this whole time.’

Buckley replies: ‘What the whole thing comes back to is, do you actually think about the best interests of the football club?

‘You’ve become a bit of a rogue and you might call it leadership but you’ve basically gone on your own, not tangents, but on your own crusades at times.’

Buckley replied to Lumumba’s post on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, demanding he release the ‘full and uncut’ version of the audio clip.

‘Heritier, I offer you the opportunity to put a full and uncut version of our conversations on public record so as to provide context to our conversations and the support that was provided to you above and beyond that which could be reasonably expected in the circumstances.’ 

Lumumba’s latest revelation comes after he unearthed evidence contained in a document he was going to present to the Magpies as part of the club’s ‘Do Better’ report into racism. 

One of the ex-star’s most startling claims is that an assistant coach showed players a pornographic photo during a team meeting.

‘One of the team rules was to ‘come forward’, so he showed an image of a group of about five or more men ejaculating on a woman’s face with the words ‘come forward’ as a caption,’ Lumumba wrote.

‘Nathan Buckley was the head coach and seemed unfazed by it all.’

Buckley said on Monday: ‘The club have, from my understanding tried to work with Héritier and other Indigenous players, who have been part of systemic racism situations over the course of the club’s history. 

‘I am happy to engage with the club however they wish, but Héritier hasn’t been satisfied with that and that’s why we are where we’re at.

‘It seems that Héritier doesn’t really want to move forward unless, I don’t know, he needs heads to roll. I don’t know exactly what he’s looking for, or what his requirements are to feel like he has been heard, because that is really what we have tried to do.

‘He has been apologised to – I’ve apologised to him, the club has apologised to him … for the environment that he’s been in – and not just Héritier – but the other Indigenous players.

‘Other areas when we talk about – misogyny, homophobia, those cultural aspects of an organisation – football clubs have come a long way. We’re talking about things that have happened 10 to 15 years ago, and when you remove context and bring it into the current day, it sounds even more abhorrent than it would have been then.’