Don't Look Back In Anger

The Age

Friday June 13, 2008

Nick Sheridan

IN 749 games at VFL/AFL level, Collingwood coach Michael Malthouse has learned a thing or two about timing. In his 174 games as a tough back pocket for St Kilda and Richmond, Malthouse needed to know when it was time to go, and go he did, earning a reputation as one of the game's hardest defenders.

In his 575 games as coach, Malthouse has had to decide when his young players were ready to step up, or when their end had come.

But with his 750th overall game looming, the one that will make him the third-longest-serving coach in the league's history, behind another Collingwood great, Jock McHale, and Essendon legend Kevin Sheedy, Malthouse said he would know when the time came for him to walk away, but that time had not come yet.

"I've said, contract or no contract . . . if I don't believe for one moment that I can do what I know is needed of a senior coach, then I'm not going to be a senior coach," Malthouse said yesterday.

"I don't want to see good work go down the gurgler because someone stayed too long, and I won't be staying too long."

The wily 54-year-old, who has become known for his belligerent attitude towards the media as well as for his coaching smarts, reflected on the many twists of his career - now in its 37th uninterrupted year - that have led him to the helm of the Collingwood Football Club.

Malthouse is "humbled" by circumstances that provided him with the many opportunities he has enjoyed. He ended his playing career in 1983, aged 30, but soon received a call from Footscray's general manager, Shane O'Sullivan. "He said, 'I want you to coach', and I thought, 'I'm not quite ready for under-19s', and he said, 'No, not under-19s, not reserves, I want you to coach the seniors'," Malthouse related, adding: "I still to this day don't know why they chose me."

Despite his doubts, Malthouse took the plunge, leading a team in which some of the players were older than him. O'Sullivan's faith was soon repaid and Malthouse led the club to a preliminary final in his second year.

In 1990, Malthouse headed west and was required to utilise all of the toughness he had developed over 18 years in football.

"To take over there, I had to take a pretty strong stance. I believed I was either going to come back in six months or come back in 10 years," he said. "And I chose the six-months attitude - which was 'go hard, go as heavy as I possibly could' - which turned into 10 years because we learnt very quickly that to compete with the best, you had to be the best." And the best they became, winning premierships in 1992 and '94.

While his mood was more expansive yesterday than the combative Malthouse who often fronts the media, there were still moments of his nostalgia that were soured by encounters that have evidently left lasting marks on his memories.

Of his two flags at West Coast, he remains defensive. "I know it's often said that it was a state side, but I can't help the fact that Dean Kemp was drafted at 116, or Ashley McIntosh at 114 . . . so I apologise to those people that think that they were just handed to us; we actually picked them," he said.

And of suggestions he signed with Collingwood midway through 1999, before ending his relationship with West Coast. "That is totally incorrect," he said in an unprompted attempt to finally set the record straight.

MICHAEL MALTHOUSE

1972-76: Recruited to St Kilda from North Ballarat. Played 53 games.

1976-1983: Played 121 games for Richmond. Premiership player in 1980.

1984-1989: Coach of Footscray. 135 games.

1990-1999: Coach of West Coast. 243 games. Premiership coach 1992 and 1994.

2000-present: Coach of Collingwood. 197 games. Runnerup, 2002 and 2003.

The four most prolific coaches in history are: - Jock McHale (714 games with Collingwood).

- Kevin Sheedy (635 games with Essendon).

- Mick Malthouse (575 games with Footscray, West Coast and Collingwood).

- Allan Jeans (575 games with St Kilda, Hawthorn and Richmond).

The most prolific five individuals in history are: - Kevin Sheedy (886 games, comprising 251 games as a player for Richmond and 635 games as a coach for Essendon).

- Jock McHale (878 games, comprising 261 games for Collingwood as a player and player-coach and 617 premiership games as a coach only).

- Leigh Matthews (782 games comprising 332 games as a player for Hawthorn, 224 games as a coach for Collingwood and 226 games as a coach for the Brisbane Lions).

- Mick Malthouse.

- David Parkin (729 games, comprising 211 games as a player for Hawthorn, 94 games as a coach for Hawthorn, 355 games as a coach for Carlton and 69 games as a coach for Fitzroy).

© 2008 The Age

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