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2009: the year Eddie McGuire decided he knew what footy coaching was all about and decided the way forward for the Pies was to dismantle a successful formula and replace Mick Malthouse with Nathan Buckley at the end of the 2011 season.
Until then, Mick would ‘mentor’ Bucks as a ‘director of coaching’. Of course Mick was not going to have a bar of it, even though they all shook on it in 2009.
To say it failed would be, at the very least, a glaring understatement.
This was a team with such dominance over the 2010 and 2011 seasons, and even though they blipped in the 2011 Grand Final, you could see a dynasty brewing much like that of Geelong in recent years, or Hawthorn of today.
You could see from the outside that the players played, bonded, toiled, sweated and bled for each other and their coach – it looked like indestructible unity.
Enter 2012 and a new coach… on the rebuild. I don’t care what anyone says as soon as you break a link in the chain of a successful unit it changes and therefore you need to build the whole unit together again regardless of how many or less pieces are taken out.
Think of a drill sergeant in an SAS team replaced by another when casualties happen on deployments. A dynasty gone begging because one Eddie McGuire could not live with losing his favourite son Nathan Buckley.
There were rumours that Nathan would walk if he did not claim the chair. How true that is I don’t know, but what I do know is that if Nathan had any integrity he would have turned to Mick and said “Mick you stand aside when you’re ready, don’t listen to Eddie.”
Of course, there would have been legal ramifications if that were to pass because a contract was signed in 2009. However, at least then the two could have teamed up with Bucks in the chair, but in reality Mick would still be calling the shots and coaching the team.
To be completely honest, with the relationship Mick had with those players, I reckon he would’ve coached ’em for nothing! And possibly Mick should have gritted his teeth and stayed – no doubt the playing group would have preferred this scenario. Whichever way you boil it down – it appears that Mick got the rough end of the stick.
Could you imagine how it would look now if that team stayed together, at least one more in the cabinet maybe two and the succession plan would be lauded as a masterstroke implemented by one Eddie McGuire. Unfortunately in reality it did not work this way and now he looks stupid.
Bucks decided back then to completely rebuild over time and at the time of writing there are only eight players that were on the park in that premiership victory still in the side.
Sure there have been retirements, but generally you get the feeling, certainly in the beginning at least, that the love wasn’t there and players have been leaving over the years since 2011. In short it’s Bucks’ way or the highway, it certainly looks that way from the outside at least… and the results speak for themselves.
In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Carlton were finalists under Brett Ratten – how close were they in 2011! A straight kick from being top 4 in Perth against West Coast! Then 2012 arrived and they slumped to 10th, not a blip like the Pies in the Grand Final, yet no real cause for concern. However, the Blues’ board got a sniff of Mick Malthouse, and the rest is history.
It just looks like it was was a knee-jerk reaction: Finish 10th, panic, sack Ratten because Malthouse is available.
Since 2011 the Blues have lost players the likes of Eddie Betts, Mitch Robinson and Jarrad Waite to name a few who look to have brighter futures at other clubs. Brock McLean was delisted (jury is out on that one) and the speculation on Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs is rife.
From the outside it looks like exit stage left, and you get the feeling there was more love with this group for Ratten with the exception of Daisy Thomas who, of course, followed Malthouse to Carlton.
The theme looks the same as the Pies’ failure, the Blues had a good ‘unit’ going there. And going by their 2011 season, they were probably underrated by a lot of people. Fast forward two years, and you get a hasty departure from Ratten to make way for the new coach because “well hey it’s Malthouse, let’s pencil in a flag now.”
This obviously hasn’t worked for Carlton, the results speak for themselves. I reckon if it was anyone else but Mick, Ratten would have been left to coach that team.
What could’ve been at Collingwood? It is hard to deny they would have, at the absolute least, been flag contenders and probably would have another cup behind the glass at the Westpac Centre given their utter dominance over that two year period.
And for Carlton I’ll say it again: for mine it looked reactionary for not finishing in the eight for the 2012 season. The list was strong at the time, especially that midfield that the press touted so highly. But Mick was available, and it became a list with a new, but not as loved or familiar leader.
Now we have a wooden spoon contender and another that, going by their youth and inexperience, will be considered a positive should they finish above the bottom four.
I have no doubt in my mind that Eddie McGuire and Stephen Kernahan have admitted to themselves that they have actually destructed a successful and potential premiership winning team.
Naturally, this thought will never leave their minds to the waiting public and press. Like clever politicians who dance around answering questions with spin, these two will never admit what everyone knows.
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