As the players belted out the theme song in the immediate aftermath of the team’s meritorious three-point win over West Coast at Etihad Stadium last Saturday night, Carlton Senior Coach Michael Malthouse’s thoughts were already turning to Friday night and the old enemy.
As such, there was precious little time for Malthouse to contemplate, let alone savour, a significant personal milestone of his own – win No.400 in 30 seasons in the frenetic coaching caper.
“Someone had mentioned it to me during the week and it is nice, but coaches don’t play,” said Malthouse when asked of the milestone’s significance. “The battle lies with the troops. They’re the ones who bleed, break their bones, tear their sinews . . . they do it.
“I just happen to be part of that, and I’ve been part of it for 400 winning teams.”
Rewind to the Western Oval, Round 1, Saturday, March 31, 1984 – Malthouse’s first win on debut as Senior Coach – and ironically at the expense of Richmond for whom he was a Premiership player four years previous.
Mick Malthouse celebrates a win with Terry Wallace during his time as Footscray coach. (Photos: AFL Photos)
The Bulldogs emerged comfortable 39-point victors on a day in which Simon Beasley booted a lazy 11.4. Malthouse was first to admit that after all these years, specifics are difficult to recount, but he did offer a fascinating insight into how winning and losing impacts upon the coach.
“It’s probably going back too far, but most wins are relief and the biggest win is a Premiership win,” he said, “and the highs and lows of winning and losing are diminishing as time goes by. Your time of winning is a breath, and then it goes ‘Who’s injured?’, ‘Who may be reported?’, ‘Who are we playing?’, ‘How long before we play them?’. ‘Who do we get back,’ ‘How did the seconds go?’ ’ It’s almost like it (a win) is dismissive, whereas a loss lingers, and so the emotions are massively different. One is so short lived and the other one prevails.”
Mick Malthouse and John Worsfold hold the 1992 Premiership cup aloft. (Photo: AFL Photos)
But did victory afford the coach any time to savour it?
“That night you do,” came the reply from the man closing in on “Jock” McHale. “You can enjoy your meal.”
The cut-throat nature of football goes with the territory, but maybe Malthouse speaks for all in the VFL/AFL coaching fraternity when he talks of the pressures encountered by loved ones after a loss.
It is they, the innocents, who are the game’s softest targets.
Top ten, most wins as coach, 1897-2014
467 - Jock McHale Collingwood
400* - Mick Malthouse Footscray, West Coast, Collingwood, Carlton
389 - Kevin Sheedy Essendon, Greater Western Sydney
357 - Allan Jeans St Kilda, Hawthorn, Richmond
336 - Tom Hafey Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong, Sydney
306 - David Parkin Hawthorn, Carlton, Fitzroy
276 - Dick Reynolds Essendon
275 - Ron Barassi Carlton, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Sydney
267 - Leigh Matthews Collingwood, Brisbane
251 - Norm Smith Fitzroy, Melbourne, South Melbourne
*Still coaching
