Collingwood AFL coach Nathan Buckley hit out on Tuesday at what he described as the disproportionate interest in All-Australian forward Travis Cloke’s contract negotiations.

Despite reports of rival clubs including Fremantle making lucrative offers to Cloke’s management, Buckley is confident Cloke will remain at the club.

Television footage on the Nine Network on Monday night showed a secret meeting as part of the Cloke negotiations but Buckley says the situation is not as tense as some have made it out to be.

“We have a lot of secret meetings. Generally you don’t find out about them,” Buckley told reporters.

“We are having discussions with all our uncontracted players.

“There’s a disproportionate amount of focus on Travis at the moment.

“We don’t really want to buy into that.

“We think that things are going along particularly well with his situation.

“None of us, even you guys (reporters) can control the animal that the media is. Once it gets a bit of momentum it’s pretty hard to stop.

“Before you know it’s gigantic and that’s exactly where we’re at. Our focus lies on (Saturday night’s clash with) Geelong.

“We’re not a club about individuals. We’re a club about the collective and every one of our players is important to us.

“Things have been far more amicable than people give credence to.

“I’m not here to talk about Travis individually from this point on.”

Buckley said he didn’t dread facing press conferences like then-Geelong coach Mark Thompson did in 2010 amid speculation skipper Gary Ablett would defect to Gold Coast, which he did at the end of the season.

“I don’t have the same fears that he may have had about Gary at that time,” Buckley said.

“I’m very confident that we’ll retain all the players that we want to retain.”

Buckley said champion midfielder Scott Pendlebury was close to being given the all-clear by medical staff to make a comeback from a fractured tibia he received against Gold Coast on June 3.

Pendlebury’s fellow midfielder Dale Thomas has been constantly icing his injured ankle in a bid to be fit to take on the Cats, while Chris Tarrant was in good form in the VFL last week.

However Marley Williams is set to have shoulder surgery after breaking down in last week’s upset loss to Carlton, Buckley added.

Buckley defended the courage of Sharrod Wellingham who has been suspended for three matches for breaking Kade Simpson’s jaw in a marking contest.

“He was so committed to getting to the ball that it was pretty hard for him to pull out,” Buckley said.

“It was an unfortunate incident. The impact was severe. The (tribunal) system did its job.”