The Collingwood succession plan is bold, innovative and presented on Tuesday by president Eddie McGuire as a magnificent coup for the club, but it's just as likely to end in tears as it is to succeed.

It was a compromise arrangement conceived through necessity to accommodate two icons of the club - the cynical veteran with unfinished business who was not prepared to stand aside for the prodigal son who was not prepared to wait.

As it's turned out, both Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley have made significant concessions, and McGuire was right when he said that it's going to take a leap of faith for the arrangement to work.

Malthouse insists there'll never be a need for him to glance over his shoulder in the next two years but even he conceded on Tuesday that a lot can happen in that time.

If the Magpies should find themselves, say, two-and-nine at the 2010 mid-season break - and that's not inconceivable for several clubs have demonstrated in recent seasons how quickly the tide can turn - the pressure for change will be unbearable.

By then Malthouse will be in his 11th year at the club with nothing to show for it and Buckley's credibility will be on the line every time he's prompted to defend to the situation.

Shakespeare would resolve such as scenario by casting Malthouse in the role of Caesar in his death throes, asking - 'et tu Buckley?'

Then again, what if Malthouse in his dotage should enjoy an Indian summer and the Pies manage to subvert the Geelong-St Kilda nexus at the top of the ladder?

Would a premiership provide sufficient leverage for an overhaul of the succession agreement and an extension of Malthouse's tenure at Buckley's expense?

Would the coach-in-waiting be prepared to put his destiny on the shelf, just for a season or two?

Or assuming all goes well in 2011 and the handover takes place smoothly and without fuss, what if the club should falter the following season under its first-year coach?

Would the clamouring start for the club's new director of coaching to return to his old role to show the rookie how it's done?

And how should Buckley feel about having his long-time mentor looking over his shoulder, for surely that's precisely the perspective a director of coaching is required to adopt.

Buckley doesn't take up his new assistant's role until November 1, but already he's changed the dynamics within the club's football department.

His fellow assistants - Mark Neeld, Paul Hudson, Brad Scott and Blake Caracella and VFL coach Gavin Brown now know they have Buckley's chance of ever being appointed to the No.1 job at Collingwood.

There's a fair bet several of them will be pressing their claims for the vacancies at North and Richmond that Buckley spurned and, at the very least, their commitment will be tested.

The players also now have a de facto senior coach to impress, relate to and learn from but also to play-off against significant others within the football department.

Everyone at Collingwood knows where the buck is supposed to stop, but the lines of demarcation are now just that little bit blurred.