Mick's blessings

[Dave The Man]

ckley | September 12, 2008

THERE is nothing that Collingwood loves more than winning against the odds. The Magpies revel in the status of underdog and attack the toughest tests with absolute intent.
There is nothing that Mick Malthouse enjoys more than having his back against the wall. He is a fi ghter and a scrapper, who relishes the opportunity to feed the critics some humble pie.
Over time, a team and the club it represents take on the persona of its leadership, and it was never more evident how closely Mick Malthouse and Collingwood are intertwined than in the side’s performance against Adelaide last week.
Right when the football community had written the coach and his young team off, they once again produced the type of performance that finals demands.
Over the course of his career as a coach, Mick has enjoyed a much better winning return from finals than he has from home-and-away matches, and I’ve been around to witness it fi rst-hand.
There are two major areas that go into creating this record.
The first is the game plan he coaches towards and the second is his ability to manage and motivate players around the specific challenges that each finals occasion provides.
Mick Malthouse coaches to win finals.
His game plan has been tinkered with and evolved over the years but he has never wavered from his primary goal of producing a team that is able to stand up in the fiercest battles. And finals football is the true test of that. There are styles that win home-and-away matches in a less taxing manner through a long, arduous season and then there is Collingwood’s game style. Mick demands his players be hardened and ready for September action, and he is prepared to take some short term pain during the home and- away rounds to achieve that aim.
His man-on-man game plan relies on intense physical pressure when the ball is either in dispute or in the opposition’s hands. While it leaves his defence one out in space against the opposition forwards, it also disrupts the opposition’s ball movement at the source.
When the pressure is at its peak, the defence competes on a level footing and can sweep up, rebound and counterattack. When it isn’t, his defence is exposed and Collingwood’s attack is stunted.
For mine, this is why we see, on occasion, such dramatic swings in Collingwood performances during the season proper.
Forget blockbuster fatigue — the ability to find the extreme fanatical pressure that sets the game plan up can be difficult to produce week-in, weekout. Anything less than manic pressure in and around the ball doesn’t cut it.
Finals, however, suit the Malthouse game plan. The finals atmosphere and intensity prods and probes at both teams and the individuals within them, looking for points of weakness. The pressure goes through the roof and even the simplest things become difficult, which in turn assists a team that relies on high-pressure football.
When the Magpies do what they do, very few teams can cope with the pressure that generates. It is Collingwood’s “unique trait”, as it has been with every Malthouse-coached team.
Looking from the outside in, the Brisbane Lions team of the early 2000s was coached by Leigh Matthews in a similar vein.
Yes, the Lions enjoyed a level of talent above that of the Pies in the same era, as results showed, but they played with a similar crash-and-bash style and a reliance on highpressure, contested football.
The Lions of that era also lost home-and-away games that many thought they should have won, but they qualified for the finals in good shape and carried the belief that their robust finals game plan would prevail. More often than not, it did.
The other reason for Mick’s finals record is his ability to create the right atmosphere heading into games that have so much riding on them. He refuses to shelter his players from the size of the challenge they face.
The “nothing-to-lose” philosophy is dispelled and he expects his players to acknowledge the full spectrum of outcomes at the other end of that match. No Malthouse-coached player is under any illusions as to how he is judged by the coach.
Finals are all that matter.
If a player fails both him and the team on the biggest stages, he risks being frozen out of Malthouse’s future plans.
Perhaps this points to Collingwood’s dramatic fall after the 2003 grand final result. Trusts were broken and it took time for the list to be rebuilt. Mick backs players regardless of age or experience, even when the stakes are highest.
His young tyros of 2008 are unheralded but they are courageous and plucky and they won’t back down from a fight. He sells the game plan hard through the year and when it stands up under the heat, the belief just grows and grows.
It happened in 2002 and we very nearly clinched a flag in the process. In the years since, the club has won finals games when it has been expected to fold.
So Collingwood faces St Kilda tonight as the “favourite”, and most expect the Pies to lose their edge. With a preliminary finals berth for the taking, I think not.
Mick will have his young team understanding what is at stake and will have the players ready to perform around a plan for this opposition.
Ross Lyon’s boys will be no different.
It is the unlimited possibilities that make finals such a great stage and why tonight’s game is must-see.​

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