We Questioned Umpires To Educate Players: Malthouse
The Age
Wednesday April 2, 2008
COLLINGWOOD had broken its recent habit of keeping silent at bewildering umpiring decisions not because it believed it would lead to any tangible change, but because the Magpies were confused and wanted to clarify uncertainty to better educate their young players, coach Michael Malthouse said.
The decision to question decisions made in last Friday night's loss to the Brisbane Lions was about seeking clarity, not venting anger, he said."I was interested in (Jeff Gieschen's) comments this morning, to suggest that I hadn't been there for 12 months and therefore everything was right," Malthouse said. "I used Denis Pagan's philosophy last year, that it doesn't make any difference. They're quite prepared to listen, there's no doubt about that, but it doesn't change the result."And we're not looking for result change, we're just looking to make sure we can educate our players. If they've done something wrong regularly, we just can't have those players in the side."He said the AFL wanted more contests in football, but was overzealous in policing those contests.Meanwhile, young key defender Nathan Brown, who has had Matthew Pavlich and Jonathan Brown, would get Matthew Richardson this week . . . or Nathan Brown. Malthouse said with a laugh: "Happy reporting that!"
© 2008 The Age
