Collingwood president Eddie McGuire fumes over finals scheduling COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley urged Eddie McGuire not to get ahead of himself, clearly irritated by his president's comments on the finals fixture. McGuire declared the scheduling of a Perth rugby union Test that could force Collingwood into consecutive six-day breaks an "act of treachery." McGuire is furious the AFL could not prevent a scheduling conflict in which the Wallabies play Argentina on Saturday week at Patersons Stadium. It means the Pies have to play on Saturday night against Port Adelaide, before a potential Friday night semi-final against Fremantle in Perth. "That is a perversion of the finals fixture," McGuire said before the Magpies' loss to North Melbourne. I have a very, very, very (strong) burning anger - I've got to be careful what I say here - of an act of treachery by the West Australian Football Commission and the West Australian state government. But Buckley shot back after the Magpies loss to North Melbourne. Informed of McGuire's comments, he said: "He said that?" Eddie McGuire at a meeting of AFL presidents at AFL House. Picture: Tim Carrafa "He probably should project another week forward and we'll probably get an extra day (off) before the prelim," Buckley said. There's plenty of things that we can control in this game and there's plenty we can't. We'll just focus on the things we can. Collingwood needs to defeat Port Adelaide - and the Dockers lose to the Cats - to create a semi-final at Patersons Stadium. McGuire said, without the rugby Test, the Pies would have played Port on Sunday. McGuire says not only should the AFL have prevented it, but the West Australian Government and football commission had effectively gagged Fremantle and West Coast. It is another controversy in finals fixturing, with Fremantle outraged to be playing Geelong at Simonds Stadium next weekend. " (Clubs) should not have their chances of winning the premiership compromised because of this nonsense," McGuire said. Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley in action during the Magpies Round 23 loss to North Melbourne. I ask for the AFL to plan 12 months ahead, for the AFL to work out that in September we might need some grounds. We won't cop this going forward. Buckley was speaking after a bizarre end-to-end shoot-out against North Melbourne ended in an 11-point Collingwood loss. In a game that featured just 81 tackles, Buckley admitted winning the game wasn't top priority. "The second half for us was all about management, it was a really weird feeling," he said. We weren't thinking about how we were going to win the game, we were thinking about how we were going to make sure we were going to get our boys through. The second half of the game we were just (thinking) 'Blow the siren'. Defender Nathan Brown was subbed off in the second term after a knock to the knee, while Quinten Lynch (ankle) and Ben Reid (thigh) had issues, but played on. Buckley was non-committal on the trio and wouldn't speculate on whether Jamie Elliott, Ben Sinclair, Harry O'Brien (late withdrawal), Luke Ball and Darren Jolly would return.