35 Facts About Mick Malthouse

Michael Raymond Malthouse was born on 17 August 1953 and is a former Australian rules footballer and coach, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League.

Since the end of his coaching career, Mick Malthouse has continued his involvement in football through his media commitments, especially with ABC Radio.

Mick Malthouse was born in Ballarat, Victoria, to Ray Mick Malthouse, a local plasterer, and his wife Marie, the year after their marriage.

At Richmond, Mick Malthouse played 121 senior games, including six finals and the runaway premiership win over Collingwood in the 1980 Grand Final.

Mick Malthouse was noted for being a tough and solid defender.

In 1982 Mick Malthouse managed to play every game of the home-and-away season for the first time in his career, only to suffer a dislocated shoulder in the lead-up to the Grand Final.

Mick Malthouse missed out on the game after not passing a gruelling fitness test.

Mick Malthouse left the financially stricken club at the end of 1989, weeks before it announced its intentions to merge with Fitzroy; the merger never ultimately went ahead due to a supporter fightback, and Mick Malthouse was criticised by his assistant coach Terry Wheeler for not sticking by his club during its time of need.

Mick Malthouse then replaced John Todd as West Coast Eagles senior coach, at the end of the 1989 season, after Todd was sacked when the Eagles struggled and finished eleventh on the ladder with seven wins and fifteen losses.

Mick Malthouse coached Collingwood to the finals in eight out of his twelve seasons in charge including grand final appearances in 2002,2003,2010 and 2011.

In July 2009, Collingwood Football Club president Eddie McGuire produced a succession plan in which Mick Malthouse was to hand over the coaching reins to club legend and assistant coach Nathan Buckley at the end of the 2011 season.

Also in the 2009 season, Collingwood under Mick Malthouse made the finals again but were eliminated by the eventual premiers Geelong in the preliminary final by seventy-three points.

The game was his final one as Collingwood senior coach, as Mick Malthouse handed the coaching reins to assistant coach Nathan Buckley after the game, as part of the planned transition under the two year succession plan.

Mick Malthouse stated that he would not be taking on the position as Director of Coaching at Collingwood after the loss and that he had made this decision six weeks earlier.

Mick Malthouse then stated that the director of coaching job description role he had agreed to in the middle of 2009 was nothing like how it was going to look in actuality at the end of 2011.

Mick Malthouse was announced as the senior coach of the Carlton Football Club on 11 September 2012 for the next three seasons, when he replaced Brett Ratten as Carlton senior coach, after Ratten was sacked at the end of the 2012 season.

However, Carlton under Mick Malthouse were eliminated by the Sydney Swans in the semi-final in the 2013 finals series.

Under Mick Malthouse they began the 2014 season with four consecutive losses and at the end of the 2014 season, Carlton finished with seven wins, one draw and fourteen losses en route to a 13th-place finish on the ladder.

On 26 May 2015, hours after giving a radio interview on Melbourne Station SEN in which Mick Malthouse was highly critical of the club's administrators, Mick Malthouse was sacked as Carlton Football Club senior coach.

Mick Malthouse was then replaced by assistant coach John Barker as caretaker senior coach of Carlton Football Club for the rest of the 2015 season.

Years later in 2021, Mick Malthouse reflected on his tenure as senior coach of Carlton in the Herald Sun and stated: "The biggest disappointment of my coaching career is that I should have looked further into Carlton's lack of forward thinking, before I signed on to coach the Blues" and "I was staggered at the Carlton board's pre-occupation with past players and past premierships".

Mick Malthouse is married with four children, including sports reporter and AFL boundary rider Christi Mick Malthouse.

Mick Malthouse spent time as a guest media commentator for SEN 1116.

In 2016, Mick Malthouse replaced Dermott Brereton as a commentator of matches on SEN 1116 as well as being named coach of The Recruit.

Mick Malthouse was quoted as saying he would like a senior coaching role with Cricket Australia.

Mick Malthouse has released an autobiography, The Ox is Slow but the Earth is Patient.

Mick Malthouse joined 3AW and Seven Network in media roles after finishing coaching at Collingwood.

Mick Malthouse wrote an opinion piece, "Academia and Experience", about his approach to his new role which was published as a La Trobe University Opinion on 14 February 2012.

Mick Malthouse has been described as a "remote and intimidating character, an old fashioned patrician whose passion for the game could never be questioned but whose love of its people was never expressed" and a "consummate football politician".

Mick Malthouse was very consistent and very dogmatic and always had his own way about how he wanted his players to train and play.

Mick Malthouse had a large say on pretty much every aspect of the footy department.

Mick Malthouse seems to still have all those things today.

Mick Malthouse always had the ability to attract players of great character but without huge amounts of talent and make them into great footballers.

Mick Malthouse loves the game and encourages people to be honest with what they say they're going to be.

Mick Malthouse was obviously a terrific coach, but unfortunately at Carlton for us and for me and the boys who were there working so hard, it just didn't work out.