Footy greats in war of words as Dane Swan lashes out at Nick Reiwoldt and reopens a painful grand final wound for the St Kilda legend: 'What the f*** would he know?'

Dane Swan has blasted Nick Riewoldt after the St Kilda legend criticised former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley.

Pies great Swan, 40, was part of Collingwood's infamous 'Rat Pack', which consisted of Ben Johnson, Heath Shaw, Chris Tarrant and Alan Didak.

The quintet often found themselves in trouble and Riewoldt claimed that Buckley's ill-fated spell as coach of the Pies was largely due to his inability to handle the group.

'The reason he gets a bit of a bad rap as coach is because of a certain segment of Collingwood players that like to hang it on him from time to time, the 'Rat Pack', they like to hang it on Bucks,' Riewoldt said when endorsing Buckley to coach the AFL's new Tasmanian side.

'(But he) would be a great acquisition: (a) football person, a big personality and he's very well-balanced as a person.'

But Swan has hit back at Riewoldt, claiming he doesn't know what he's talking about before aiming a dig at the Saints great.  

'With all due respect what the f*** would Nick Riewoldt know about Nathan Buckley being a coach?' he said.

'I don't know if he's having a go at us … the 'Rat Pack' beat him in a grand final. Heath Shaw's smother, one of the main leaders, smothered him and he cost them the granny.

'Unless Bucks has fed him that, how would he know.'

Swan added: 'I have no doubt Bucks would be a better coach now than what he was when he first started because he's learnt.'

Thomas and Shaw also discussed Riewoldt's comments on the next Footy Talk podcast.

'That's got nothing to do with the reason why he gets a bad rap as a coach, (it's) because his record wasn't that good as coach for most of the time,' Shaw said.

Thomas said: 'I think the general public believes they (the 'Rat Pack') don't like him because he's not Mick Malthouse. But also because we thought there was an opportunity … to be in contention for three or five years like the Tigers. 

'A lot of things have to go right, we all know that, but we thought we were in a window so a lot of frustration and talk since about it is on the back of that rather than making it a personal agenda.'