My last AFL game as coach, says Mick

Mick Malthouse is adamant his illustrious AFL coaching career is about to end, but remains unsure whether he will stay at Collingwood.

Unless Saturday’s grand final against Geelong is a draw, Malthouse insists it will be the last time he is in charge of a team.

Under the Magpies’ succession plan, the three-time premiership coach steps down as senior coach for Nathan Buckley and becomes their coaching director.

But there has been rampant speculation about Malthouse, with the latest talk that he would have a year out and then look at coaching at another AFL club.

Asked on Sunday if he thought the premiership decider against Geelong would be his last as coach, Malthouse replied: “yes I do.”

“I have to be careful because my wife is sitting over there,” the 58-year-old Malthouse told Channel Seven’s Game Day.

“You say `no’ and somewhere down here (pointing to his stomach) says `perhaps’, but I’m saying now, there’s no perhaps.

“This is a no, this is the end.”

Malthouse agreed with fellow coaching great Leigh Matthews that the desire to have the job would never leave him.

“Allan Jeans was a coach to the end, he wasn’t coaching, but he was a coach to the end,” Malthouse said.

“That’s what will always be with me, I can’t just give up that competitiveness.

“At some stage in life, you’ve got to say `let’s be fair.’”

Malthouse was then asked if he would stay at Collingwood as their coaching director.

“That’s still to be worked out,” he said.

Malthouse has coached continuously since 1984 and is second on the all-time AFL list with 665 games, second only to the 714 of Magpies legend Jock McHale.

He has an unbroken run of 40 years at AFL level, having played 174 games at St Kilda and Richmond before taking over as Footscray coach in 1984.

After six years in charge at the Bulldogs, he had 10 years and two flags at West Coast before this 12-year stint with the Magpies.

Malthouse had tears in his eyes at the end of Friday night’s epic preliminary final against Hawthorn, where the Magpies somehow clawed their way back in the last term to win by three points.

“This year has taken on a different meaning again because I know it’s going to conclude,” he said.

“Now, that could have just as easily have been at three-quarter time, we don’t make any advance on that 17-point (deficit), that’s it for 40 years of football.

“I didn’t have any idea that emotionally, it would tie me up so much.

“I know that I’m going to reach the top of the mountain and there’s going to be no tomorrow in terms of that 40 years that I’ve been involved – it’s just going to be stopped.”

But Malthouse added his situation would not be mentioned this week, saying it was all about the team’s performance.

“Any individual stuff will be about the playing group,” he said.

Malthouse was also confident the defending premiers would be better for Friday night’s massive scare.

“I just thought our boys were a bit tense and knowing that finishing on top meant so much, but really what did it mean?,” he said.

“If you got beaten, it meant nothing.

“The gloves are off now, a bit of pressure has been lifted.”

Malthouse particularly hopes that Chris Tarrant, Leon Davis and Andrew Krakouer become premiership players this Saturday.

All have overcome well-documented challenges to become key Collingwood players.