Mick Malthouse


Michael Malthouse is a former Australian rules footballer and former Australian Football League coach and current media personality. Although his playing career included a premiership for in 1980, he is best known for his long coaching career at four clubs and holds the record for coaching the most VFL/AFL games.
After beginning as a coach with Footscray in 1984, Malthouse became the most successful coach in the history of the West Coast Eagles, holding several club coaching records including the most grand final appearances, most premierships, as well as the highest win ratio. The 1992 AFL Grand Final win was the West Coast Eagles' first ever premiership and the first AFL premiership won by a team from outside Victoria.
Malthouse then coached Collingwood to grand finals in 2002, 2003, 2010 and 2011; with success in the 2010 Grand Final Replay, leading Collingwood to its first premiership since 1990. He spent 2½ seasons as the senior coach of from 2013 until mid-2015.
Malthouse's coaching career spanned 718 senior games – the all-time VFL/AFL record – over thirty-one seasons. Malthouse was involved as a player or senior coach at six clubs – an AFL record.

Playing career

St Kilda

Recruited from North Ballarat, Malthouse started his football career with St Kilda in 1972, playing 53 senior games including three finals. After being told by then-coach Allan Jeans that he would struggle to get a game in the senior side due to a surfeit of similar-skilled players, he departed for Richmond midway through the 1976 season.

Richmond

At Richmond he played 121 senior games, including six finals and the runaway premiership win over Collingwood in 1980. He was noted for being a tough and solid defender. He retired in 1983.

Coaching career

Footscray: 1984–1989

He was Footscray's senior coach from 1984 to 1989. During his time at the Bulldogs he was known for his tough stance on many players, including Doug Hawkins. The team's final standings in his years in charge were 7th, 3rd, 8th, 7th, 8th and 13th. He impressed with his dedication and professionalism. Malthouse left the financially stricken club at the end of 1989, weeks before it announced its intentions to merge with Fitzroy; the merger never ultimately went ahead due to a supporter fightback, and Malthouse was criticized by his assistant coach Terry Wheeler for not sticking by his club during its time of need.

West Coast Eagles: 1990–1999

For ten years from 1990 he was senior coach for the West Coast Eagles. During his tenure as coach the Eagles made the finals every year, including 1992 and 1994 premierships and 1991 grand finalists. Final minor premiership ladder positions were 3rd, 1st, 4th, 6th, 1st, 5th, 4th, 5th, 7th and 5th.

Collingwood: 2000–2011

Recruited to the Magpies in 2000 by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, Malthouse coached Collingwood to the finals in eight out of his twelve seasons as coach including grand final appearances in 2002, 2003, 2010 and 2011. In 2010, after the first drawn AFL/VFL grand final since 1977, Collingwood claimed premiership success with a resounding 56-point win over St Kilda in the replay. This was the club's biggest ever win in a grand final and the first since 1990. In July 2009, McGuire produced a succession plan in which Malthouse was to hand over the coaching reins to club legend Nathan Buckley at the end of the 2011 season. In 2011, Malthouse guided Collingwood to another grand final against the Geelong Cats. After the dramatic three point win over Hawthorn in a preliminary final, he was shown on TV in tears in the coach's box after his side came from 17 points down at the final change to book their place in Malthouse's fifth grand final as Collingwood coach and his eighth overall. Collingwood lost the 2011 AFL Grand Final to Geelong by 38 points. The game was his final one as Collingwood coach. Malthouse advised that he would not be taking on the position as Director of Coaching at Collingwood after the loss and that he had made this decision six weeks earlier. In addition, while coaching Collingwood, Malthouse spent time as a guest media commentator for SEN 1116.

Carlton: 2013–2015

Malthouse was announced as the senior coach of Carlton on 11 September 2012 for the next three seasons. In 2013 the Blues initially finished ninth on the ladder, but were raised to eighth place after were penalised for its well-documented supplements scandal, following a one-point win over Port Adelaide in the final round, which kept North Melbourne from overtaking them on percentage. Carlton subsequently defeated Richmond in its elimination final, thus making Malthouse the most successful finals coach ever.
Carlton struggled for the remainder of his tenure at the club. His 2014 campaign began with four consecutive losses en route to a 13th-place finish; and in 2015, the club sat last with a record of 1–7 after eight weeks. As the club's on-field performances also deteriorated, there was intense media speculation about Malthouse's position, and the public relationship between Malthouse and club administration – notably president Mark LoGiudice and CEO Steven Trigg, who had both been in the roles since mid-2014 – also deteriorated. On 26 May 2015, hours after giving a radio interview on Melbourne Station SEN which was highly critical of the club's administrators, Malthouse was sacked.

Statistics

Playing statistics

! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1972
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1973
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1974
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1975
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1976
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1976
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1977
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1978
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1979
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1981
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1982
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1983
! colspan=3| Career
! 174
! 15
! 18
! 1645
! 661
! 2306
! 316
!
! 0.1
! 0.1
! 9.5
! 3.8
! 13.3
! 1.8
!

Coaching statistics

! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1984
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1985
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1986
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1987
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1988
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1989
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1990
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1991
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1993
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1995
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1996
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1997
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1998
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 1999
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2000
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2001
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2002
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2003
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2004
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2005
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2006
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2007
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2008
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2009
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2011
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2013
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2014
! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" | 2015
! colspan=2| Career totals
! 718
! 406
! 305
! 7
! 57.0%
! colspan=2|

Honours and achievements

Playing honours

Team
Team
Individual
Malthouse is married with four children, including sports reporter and AFL boundary rider Christi Malthouse.

Media career

Prior to finishing coaching Collingwood, Malthouse spent time as a guest media commentator for SEN 1116. In 2012 he was a media commentator for the Seven Network and radio station 3AW and a journalist for The West Australian. In addition, he has appeared weekly on the 5AA sports show with Graham Cornes and Stephen Rowe. In 2016, Malthouse replaced Dermott Brereton as a commentator of matches on SEN 1116 as well as being named coach of The Recruit. After being fired by SEN at the end of 2017, Malthouse joined the ABC as a commentator on its football coverage.

Between coaching period

Malthouse was quoted as saying he would like a senior coaching role with Cricket Australia. He has released an autobiography, The Ox is Slow but the Earth is Patient.
Malthouse joined 3AW and Seven Network in media roles after finishing coaching at Collingwood.
In 2012, La Trobe University appointed Malthouse as a Vice Chancellor's Fellow. As a leader and mentor, Malthouse works with staff, students and the community and leads the development of sport at the university - including programs to support La Trobe's academic programs in sports journalism, sports management, physiotherapy podiatry and other sports related academic programs.
Malthouse wrote an opinion piece, "Academia and Experience", about his approach to his new role which was published as a La Trobe University Opinion on 14 February 2012. In this he wrote that "'Education for the future needs a lot more than specialised knowledge and skills. It requires life experience. This is what La Trobe expects me to bring to my new role as Vice-Chancellors Fellow. It is a challenge I will relish. The aim is to place more emphasis on the non-academic side of campus life: practical experience, teamwork, leadership skills and community involvement. In my view, the importance of these aspects of education real-world experience are being seriously overlooked by too many institutions."

Playing and coaching achievements