The saying goes that there are two types of coaches – those who have been sacked, and those who will be sacked.
Perhaps that adage should be changed to include a third type – the successful coach who signed a deal to allow a favourite son to take over his role as head coach, only to regret his decision at a later point in time but be powerless to renege on his contract.
In this third group sits Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse.
If Malthouse coaches the Magpies to premiership glory this year, he will become just the third person in the history of the VFL/AFL to be a dual premiership coach at more than one club (the other two being Jack Worrall and Ron Barassi).
Significantly, Malthouse will become the first man to have coached both a Victorian and a non-Victorian side to dual premierships.
Although Malthouse has made it clear that he will not be at another AFL club in season 2012, whether he remains at Collingwood as per his contract for the next two seasons, or coaches elsewhere beyond 2012 is still uncertain.
There is every chance he will seek further glory as head coach of another club once his time at the Magpies comes to a close. History tells us so.
Great sportspeople and coaches have an excellent sense of microscopic timing. They know when to make a crucial move, when to push harder and when to retreat. This sense of timing helps win matches, praise and premierships. It is what separates them from their competitors.The impeccable sense of microscopic timing in sporting greats is often accompanied by a poor sense of macroscopic timing.
Legends of sport struggle to comprehend and recognise their decline from the peaks of their powers.
They see the next hurdle as no different to the previous one, not realising that the man who slayed the last beast was ten times the one they now see looking back at them in the mirror.
Think Ali, Schumacher, Lockett, Sheedy and Jordan.
Put simply, champion sportspeople don’t know when to pull the plug on their glittering careers.
Even if Malthouse does see out the next two years behind the scenes at Collingwood as per his contract, history tells us he will attempt to add to his impressive coaching record at another AFL club in the future.
The self-belief from past glories in sporting champions is so strong, that they cannot resist the lure of another challenge.
Rather than calling it quits on the top of the mountain, surveying the mere mortals below, sporting champions all too often try and attempt the next peak.
Many would argue that their legacies are tarnished because their final years in the sports they excelled at were not as outstanding as the great heights they reached earlier in their careers.
Should Malthouse coach the Magpies to the AFL premiership this season and not take up a head coaching role at another AFL club in the future, he will become one of the very few sportspeople or coaches to leave the highest level at the absolute top of their game.
If he decides to take up a role as head coach at another club and does not find further success, his legend will be lessened for not bowing out earlier.
No doubt Malthouse will be aware of this, but the competitive desire to keep coaching will, at this point in time, outweigh any thoughts about his legacy as a coach.
Though Malthouse’s departure from the senior coaching ranks will not be entirely on his own terms, he has the opportunity to leave at the top of his sport and the top of his game.
The quest for premierships four, five and six will always tempt him back, but the knowledge that he left the game at the peak of his powers may trump the number of premierships won when Malthouse reflects on his great career in the years to come.
Follow Michael Filosi on Twitter @michaelfilosi
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Diplomatically answered, Darcy!
For all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds the now-traditional Anzac Day clash at the MCG, there has been one thing conspicuously lacking over…
Old mate summing it up better than anyone possibly could!
