Malthouse Unsure of His Coaching Future

Speculation over whether Mick Malthouse will remain at Collingwood next year continues to grow, after talks between the coach and the club failed to define what Malthouse will be doing at the club next year in his role as Director of Football.

Malthouse met with Collingwood president Eddie McGuire during the week to get a grasp of what was expected of him gong forward, however confusion still reigns as to what, if anything, Malthouse will be doing at the club next year.

The Malthouse-Nathan Buckley succession plan was announced two years ago, however it seems no one has actually mapped out what Malthouse’s role will be.

“The roles of what the director of football and what the senior coach look like are evolving,” McGuire said.

“I just wanted to let it evolve naturally to see where it was going. I believed the roles would be essential to where our club is going.

“We will flesh out the roles that are there, but let there be no mistake, the senior coach is the senior coach.

“Nathan Buckley is running the show next year. That’s from a coaching point of view.”

It is possible that Malthouse could win back to back premierships with a team he has coached for ten years and a game plan that has taken just as long to implement and fine tune.

It seems unlikely that If Collingwood win another flag Malthouse will simply fade into a back office job at the club he has helped re-build.

Malthouse is contracted to the Magpies for another two years, however that deal could be broken if both parties agree. That could be on the cards especially if Malthouse considers his job to be irrelevant.

The situation at the Lexus Centre will surely not be helped by the fact that Malthouse is constantly being linked with every coaching job that looks like it may become available. Throughout the year he has been linked to Carlton, Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Buckley on the other hand has already started looking to next year.

“There is some planning going forward. You don’t wander there, you go there deliberately, you deal with it and then you come back to what is front and centre,” Buckley  said.

Buckley even went so far as saying he may tinker with the game plan the Malthouse has worked so hard on perfecting.

“I do feel that we probably could have the football in our hands a little more,” he said.

“I feel we’ve got a fairly good balance at the moment for our senior players, but I’d think I’d like to get the ball in the hands of the young players a bit more.”