Malthouse Slams Afl Changes

The Age

Tuesday January 29, 2008

Michael Gleeson, Potchefstroom, South Africa

THE AFL has introduced changes to this year's pre-season cup that undermine teams' preparation and preclude some players from competing, according to Collingwood coach Michael Malthouse.

In a scathing attack on moves announced on January 14 by AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson to limit the number of interchanges in NAB Cup games to 64, Malthouse said the decision was predicated on flawed research by a condescending AFL indifferent to clubs' concerns.

Troubled by the increase in interchanges in recent seasons, the AFL has capped at 16 the changes a team can make each quarter. That cap includes changes made at any of the breaks.

"I can only think this is judged on what (South Australian researcher Ken) Norton has been saying. Personally, and along with other coaches, we think that information was flawed," Malthouse said. "All our training is about rapid and multiple changes and we find out in January, a week or two before we get to Africa, that they make these changes. Certainly, the coaches would vote against it. We don't know where some of these things are coming from."

Malthouse said the AFL had presented research revealing a drop in injuries from 1999 to 2007 and separately released other research showing an increase in the number of interchanges in the same period, yet refused to accept there was a correlation.

"Adrian's reply to me is that there is no conclusive evidence. My view is that there is no conclusive evidence when it does not suit the AFL or Adrian Anderson," Malthouse said.

"We are continually told there are more people watching the game, attending the game, watching on TV; the newspapers are covering it more than ever and we are continually told by the AFL we need to change and there is something wrong with the game."

Malthouse said the change would preclude him from selecting certain players for the Pies' first NAB Cup game, against Adelaide, in Dubai on February 9.

"The rules have just killed us in regard to blokes like Anthony Rocca, Harry O'Brien, Tyson Goldsack. Just killed us. We can't play them, they just can't play in the game," Malthouse said.

He said the changes were made more absurd by the fact the AFL had allowed the interchange bench to be expanded to six for most pre-season matches - and to eight in Dubai - but clubs had fewer opportunities to use that bench.

Malthouse, in South Africa for Collingwood's higher altitude training camp, said he was likely to select youngster John McCarthy - the club's first pick in last year's national draft - for the Dubai match.

Defender Jack Anthony, who missed all of last year with a serious neck injury, was also in line to play his first senior game in more than a year in Dubai. Anthony, a player with a James Clement-type build and approach if not temperament, is being groomed for full-back or a key defending role.

Malthouse said the difficulty for the Pies would be in making up for the loss of senior players Clement, Nathan Buckley and Paul Licuria without losing ground. Doing that successfully, he said, would not necessarily be measured by position on the ladder.

"The real challenge for us is to not lose ground on last year but to still take another step," he said.

To do that, Malthouse said, the club needed its early draft picks in the 2006 draft, Nathan Brown and Chris Dawes, to emerge as regular senior players.

"For us to get better, they (Dawes and Brown) need to have an impact," he said.

© 2008 The Age

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