Is Mick Malthouse the greatest ever coach?

Some people have been suggesting Mick Malthouse is the greatest coach of all time, and if longevity is the measure you use to quantify greatness then they might have a point.

The current Carlton leader will break Collingwood legend Jock McHale’s long-standing coaching endurance record of 714 games in Round 5 of the coming season.

(There is some conjecture about the number of games McHale coached. He was ill the day the Magpies won their record fourth premiership in a row in 1930, but has recently been credited with the game. Most record books will show that he coached 713 games.)

But that record alone can’t make Malthouse the greatest. Surely more has to be taken into account than mere time spent in the game?

Premierships for instance. As a coach, Mick has three of them, but only one in the last 20 years. McHale, who had some brilliant players at his disposal, won seven, including a hat trick of victories in the late ’20s. McHale’s only rival in the premiership stakes is legendary Melbourne figure Norm Smith, who coached the Demons to six premierships, including a stunning run of five flags in six years towards the end of the 1950s.

While it might be said that McHale and Smith were lucky to be at their respective clubs throughout a truly golden era, we must not underestimate the influence they had on their players and the winning culture that they not only cultivated, but sustained across a long period of time.

The mists of time may be beginning to obscure the exploits of these fine leaders, but their records should speak for themselves.

The great coaches who come quickly to my mind though are the thinkers, those fantastic innovators who actually changed the way the game was played.

Men like John Kennedy Senior. If anyone built a club, it was him.

Not only did he guide Hawthorn from the wilderness to win their first premiership in 1961, but laid the foundations for them becoming the superpower that they are today.

Kennedy took a new approach to training, pushing his players harder physically than any coach had probably pushed any team up until that time. The Hawks became known as ‘Kennedy’s Commandos’ and while the tough training regime increased their fitness, it also bonded the players.

Pre-seasons would never be the same again!

In all the Hawks would win three premierships under Kennedy and go on to become one of the most successful sides of the modern era.

Kennedy handed over the reins of his beloved Hawthorn to the equally innovative David Parkin, who took a more scientific approach to player preparation. He would eventually win four premierships as a coach: one with Hawthorn and three with Carlton.

Ron Barassi was another who left an indelible mark upon the game, changing it forever by introducing a play-on-at-all-costs approach during the 1970 grand final. He took the humble hand pass and transformed it from a second-rate skill used only as a last resort into a first-rate lethal weapon that, with fast and well executed play, could bamboozle the opposition.

In essence he fast tracked the running, play-on type of game that has morphed into modern football.

His fire and brimstone approach to coaching may not have worked on today’s pampered players, but two premierships each at both Carlton and North Melbourne proved his worth as a motivator and tactician.

Another coach who experienced success by daring to look beyond the time honoured traditions of the game was Kevin Sheedy. The key to his early success at Essendon was versatility.

The 1984 premiership was won with a bunch of key position players who were expected to perform no matter where they were placed on the field. Backs became forwards and forwards became backs, not from week to week, but often from quarter to quarter! Players like Paul Vanderhaar, Roger Merrett, Terry Daniher, Paul Weston and Billy Duckworth could be called upon to rotate through any of the key positions at a moment’s notice.

It doesn’t sound so strange now, but back then (with one or two exceptions) footy was pretty much the realm of the one-position player. Sheeds quickly made them an endangered species.

Another coach I rate right up there among the greatest is Tom Hafey. While he may not have been as innovative as those already mentioned, his ability to get the most from his players leaves him as one of the best ‘managers of men’ that the game has seen.

He won his premierships early in his coaching career – four with a super-talented Richmond team which he galvanised into a tight, spirited group, fostering an ‘us versus them’ mentality as he went.

His record at Collingwood, despite not winning a flag, was quite spectacular. First he took the Magpies from last place to grand finalists within one year. He then kept them in the grand final for all bar one of his five full years coaching the club.

In two of those finals the Pies squandered what probably should have been match-winning leads. Not surprisingly criticism was directed Hafey’s way, but really, if it was not for his magic of getting the players to play ‘above themselves’, they may not have even been there in the first place.

Allan Jeans and Leigh Matthews were also great managers of men, being able to blend squads of enormous egos into near invincible units for sustained periods of time. Jeans’ record at Hawthorn may have been even greater if not for time spent away from the club due to health issues.

Of course we all remember Jeans as Hawthorn coach throughout the 1980s and Matthews as head of the Brisbane juggernaut of the early 2000s, but it must not be forgotten that both men also broke the premiership drought of lesser teams – Jeans at St Kilda in 1966 (their first), and Matthews at Collingwood in 1990 (their first for over 30 years).

It is impossible to rate these coaches in any sort of order – although my leaning is towards having Barassi as number one – but each shaped the game in his own way, refined it, and left it slightly different to how it was before.

Malthouse has stood the test of time, and if his pre-season prediction of his current team Carlton not losing a game this year proves to be true, he may yet become the greatest coach ever.

But as it stands, the men that I have mentioned here must be placed ahead of him.