Malthouse’s biggest challenge yet

Resident Collingwood nut Nick Smart has his say on the one-year contract extension of Mick Malthouse, and tells us why this is the veteran coach’s biggest challenge of his twenty-year career.

THE football world is certainly a fickle one, isn’t it?

It’s amazing to think that Magpies coach Mick Malthouse, who was being hailed as the messiah by the Magpie Army only a few short seasons ago, is now the target of anger by that same group today.

News that Malthouse has just had a one-year extension added to his lucrative contract – which will see him at the Lexus Centre until the end of 2007 – has diehard Magpie nuts up in arms.

A quick glance at a few of the popular Collingwood online bulletin boards tells the story ...

“What a disgrace”

“What has he done to deserve another year?”

“15 wins in the last 45 games and he gets a contract extension?!”

“Malthouse has been there for seven years for a 45 per cent winning average. That's a fail in any language.”

And it goes on and on.

The one-year contract was not well received by Magpie fans, and nor should have it.

The timing was wrong and it again sent out a message that the football club accepts mediocrity – something the club has been known for the last decade.

In the last ten years, the Collingwood Football Club has been renowned for not making tough decisions and this move was further proof of this.

The lack of accountability that exists at the club is nothing short of a disgrace.

It started at the end of the 2005 season with the football department “review”, where every member of the department had to re-apply for their position. At the end of the review not one person was sacked.

Nobody, including the recruiting team that failed miserably in the 2002 and 2003 drafts, was held accountable for the last two seasons of truly shocking performances.

The review ended with the adding of even more staff to a football department that nearly have more people than the playing squad.

As stated, the lack of accountability started there and ended last week with the contract extension of Malthouse – who earns $800,000 a season.

At the end of 2004 there was a whisper of discontent from the faithful; at the end of 2005 it was a deafening roar.

Malthouse’s approval rating has plummeted. Another failed season at the Lexus Centre and the Collingwood hierarchy won’t be able to pretend anymore that they can’t hear the discontent of the supporters.

Mick Malthouse is about to enter his seventh season at Collingwood. For the man who took the West Coast Eagles to two premierships and who enjoyed a decade of September action and blue skies, the kitchen has never been hotter.

He knows the clock is ticking and is well aware he is facing the biggest challenge of his long and distinguished coaching career.

His back is against the wall. If he can somehow turn it around and get the club back in the premiership mix, he will see it as a great personal triumph.

Malthouse has never hidden the fact he wants a long reign at Collingwood, and if he still in the coaches box for round one 2008 then he will take great satisfaction in that.

The wolves are well and truly at his door, and the media will be right on his hammer this year baying for blood. A high-profile scalp like Malthouse – the highest-paid coach in the league at the most high-profile club in the land – will sell thousands of papers and every failure will be well documented.

The way the next few seasons pan out will dictate his football legacy and the way he is viewed forever.

Malthouse has always said he loves a challenge. Well he has one now – the biggest he has ever had in football. And everyone is watching.

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