The young defender grew up in the Carlton family, being the son of triple premiership player Jim Buckley.
While his father’s name is already synonymous with Carlton, Dylan is now making his own mark on his beloved old dark navy blues.
In his first outing for the Blues this season Buckley earned a Rising Star nomination, after gathering 18 disposals and laying six tackles in Carlton’s Round 2 match against Richmond.
Although his season would eventually be cut short by injury, Buckley went on to play eight senior games, taking his AFL games total to nine.
Despite the injury setback, Buckley continued to impress off the field with his endeavor, leadership and positive attitude. Those qualities saw him take out two awards on the John Nicholls Medal night: Best Clubman and the Spirit of Carlton Award.
When asked what the Spirit of Carlton Award means to him, Buckley said he is immensely proud and very humbled.
“It means more than you could imagine – I’m really, really happy to even be acknowledged for that award,” Buckley said.
“I love the Carlton footy club – I love coming in every day with the boys and just to be known as that sort of player is just an amazing feat.”
The Best Clubman award recognises leadership on and off the field. While Buckley laughed off suggestions he could be future captain material, he said leadership is something that comes naturally.
Meanwhile the keeper of the No. 7 guernsey said his focus now is to have a big pre-season, gain some size, and play as many games as he can in 2015.
“In my position I’ll be playing on those small forwards and obviously I’ve just got to put on a bit more strength – that’s not going to hurt – without compromising my fitness obviously,” Buckley said.
“So I’ve just got to get the right balance of getting fitter, getting stronger, and learning to play multiple positions (and) hopefully pushing up into the midfield.”
