Opinion Mick Malthouse

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White is not that versatile, he kicked four against the basket case of the comp, he won't be repeating that I guarantee. Don't even know how Watson enters the equation TBH.

Garlett and Waite are playing like two blokes that have lost their drive and their will to succeed. This has happened since the arrival of Malthouse.

If you can't see the comparison then I guess this tells us you actually know little of what went on with Laidler last season & the contrast with how Watson has approached his move to the forward line in recent weeks, but then if the media don't tell you how to think on this, how are you to form an opinion?

As for Garlett, midway through last season he was being mentioned as a possible AA selection. Why has it gone pear-shaped for him? Perhaps you can look at what has gone on in his personal life within the last 12 months, that might give you a clue & then compare that to how Yarran has responded to Malthouse's coaching.

In respect of Waite, his best football is behind him, with his body having let him down too often, but if you have any doubts about whether Malthouse has contributed to Waite's backward step, perhaps you could ask yourself why he kicked a personal best 7 goals against Essendon last season, or why 2 weeks ago he busted a gut & was a key contributor to the Northern Blues victory over Collingwood, totally belting Jesse White. This hardly demonstrates a lack of will to succeed, perhaps more a reflection of the inconsistency that has been a part of Waite's career.

 

[AndrewVadermk2]

So playing devils advocate, did I imagine Mick yelling at lingy?
Not all was "spotty dog"
He needs to learn control
Bloody over paid old codger

 

[BIGGUS 64]

In respect of Waite, his best football is behind him, with his body having let him down too often, but if you have any doubts about whether Malthouse has contributed to Waite's backward step, perhaps you could ask yourself why he kicked a personal best 7 goals against Essendon last season, or why 2 weeks ago he busted a gut & was a key contributor to the Northern Blues victory over Collingwood, totally belting Jesse White. This hardly demonstrates a lack of will to succeed, perhaps more a reflection of the inconsistency that has been a part of Waite's career.

We all have a soft spot for Waite, because he's a home grown Blue and for what he can do when at the top of his game. But seriously, how often have we seen Waite at his best over the years? Most of his career he's either been injured or coming back from injury.
He has never really quite become the player we've badly needed him to be and now he's 31 so a general decline is inevitable.
In discussing MM's merits as a coach, I don't really think Waite is relevant.

 

[Ellas Ellas]

If you can't see the comparison then I guess this tells us you actually know little of what went on with Laidler last season & the contrast with how Watson has approached his move to the forward line in recent weeks, but then if the media don't tell you how to think on this, how are you to form an opinion?

As for Garlett, midway through last season he was being mentioned as a possible AA selection. Why has it gone pear-shaped for him? Perhaps you can look at what has gone on in his personal life within the last 12 months, that might give you a clue & then compare that to how Yarran has responded to Malthouse's coaching.

In respect of Waite, his best football is behind him, with his body having let him down too often, but if you have any doubts about whether Malthouse has contributed to Waite's backward step, perhaps you could ask yourself why he kicked a personal best 7 goals against Essendon last season, or why 2 weeks ago he busted a gut & was a key contributor to the Northern Blues victory over Collingwood, totally belting Jesse White. This hardly demonstrates a lack of will to succeed, perhaps more a reflection of the inconsistency that has been a part of Waite's career.

It's all just excuses and rumours mate, I don't buy into them, I stick to the facts which are both players can be elite footballers but have dropped off considerably since Malthouse came. Both are fit and healthy.

Just wondering how did Yarran go last week? He is the same player as in 2011 with a little more maturity, Mick mismanaged him to the point of dropping him last year. Now he takes credit for Yarran getting back to his 2011 form? Gimme a break seriously there's some delusional points of view in here I have to say. No offence intended of course, some of you probably put me in the same category.

Watson hasn't established himself as a player in the senior side, the two situations simply don't compare no matter what spin you put on it. There are two sides to the story with Laidler and given Mick's irrational behaviour of late I know which side I'd be inclined to believe.

 

[BluStreak]

Gimme a break seriously there's some delusional points of view in here I have to say.
.

Yes totally agree. Delusional.

 

[BlueJet]

They're out to bring Mick down a notch because he's strong willed and doesn't take it lying down. You only had to watch Caro on FC going off and saying he's had a bad week after the Seven "debacle", his Judd comments and something else.

Journos can't take the criticism they dish out. They want their pound of flesh. You only have to read the garbage Ralph wrote for today's Herald-Sun. Bigger market for negative stories with 17 clubs lapping up negative news.

If Mick is going to be a dick he only has himself to blame if people want to portray him as one.
As for the other nonsense, I'm assuming you know plenty of journos personally?

 

[BlueJet]

It's all just excuses and rumours mate, I don't buy into them, I stick to the facts which are both players can be elite footballers but have dropped off considerably since Malthouse came. Both are fit and healthy.

Just wondering how did Yarran go last week? He is the same player as in 2011 with a little more maturity, Mick mismanaged him to the point of dropping him last year. Now he takes credit for Yarran getting back to his 2011 form? Gimme a break seriously there's some delusional points of view in here I have to say. No offence intended of course, some of you probably put me in the same category.

Watson hasn't established himself as a player in the senior side, the two situations simply don't compare no matter what spin you put on it. There are two sides to the story with Laidler and given Mick's irrational behaviour of late I know which side I'd be inclined to believe.

Yarran is having far and away his best season to date, going by his play alone.. he seems far more committed to the cause than in times past, where he'd often simply go through the motions if things weren't going his way, he now works a lot harder to impact games.
As for Laidler, most likely none of us honestly know what has gone on, he gave reasonable service while at the Blues but is a better fit at Sydney, it's probably for the best.

 

[Big Sim]

There is no game-plan when players are being thrown into the ground by a stronger, more imposing opposition. No game-plan when players throw the ball onto the boot blindly and it sails to the opposition players' chests, out of bounds, anywhere but one of our players. No game-plan when players don't run with and shepherd for the Carlton bloke with the ball. No game-plan when a pathetically simple 3 metre hand-ball falls to the feet of a Carlton player who then turns it over for an opposition goal. No game-plan when it takes a quarter before we realize the match has actually started. No game-plan when we cannot stop the momentum and run-on of the opposition and see a 4 goal lead become a 2 goal deficit within 20 minutes of football. No game-plan when our foot-skills continually butcher kicks into the forward line and out of the back line. No game-plan when we can't get the ball because the opposition want it more, beat up on us, are basically better skilled or coached or developed than us.

And Thy goes bang. Good post.

 

[gbatman]

These are the players we have lost since 2011.

Austin
Betts
Bower
Collins
Duigan
Davies
Joseph
Hoops
Bray
Kerr
Labi
Laidler
Mitchell
McCarthy
O'Hailpan
O'keefe
Russell
Twomey
Dare
Hampson
Thornton
Scotland
Bootsma

Of those only Scotland, Betts and Laidler are worth a spot (maybe Duigan at his best). We've had the additions of Menzel, Docherty, Everitt, Thomas, Cripps, Graham and Johnson just to name a few. Players like Gibbs, Murphy, Yarran, Hendo and Casboult have all come on. Murphy, Gibbs, Yarran and hendo are all older and far more mature players. Murphy is finally doing the stuff real captains do. And you're trying to tell me our list is THAT FAR worse off than it was? Gimme a break guys, like I said, it's all down to opinion, and my opinion says we are not this bad list wise. We are clearly underperforming and the buck stops with the coach. At least with me anyway.

You're underselling just how good Judd was. Judd won us a lot of games off his own boot, he's just a player now, it's up there with the Suns losing Ablett though they have a lot more gun kids than we do/did. You're also forgetting the players who have gone past their best footy. Jamison, Simpson, Mclean, Armfield, Waite and Carrazzo were important cogs in Ratten's Carlton and they are well below what they were, their best is long behind them. Kreuzer, Henderson, Garlett, Thomas and Tuohy have been injured, unfit or playing crap football all year, a few of them featured heavily in Ratten's team too. Scotland and Betts, your talking about a guy who was near or was a best and fairest and the other our leading goal kicker, huge loss as well. We've got no forwards who are kicking goals and a poor midfield. It's not hard to see. Why can't all the Ratten fans tell me why his team went from finishing 5th in 2011 to 10th the next year? People have to be blind to fail to see the list began falling apart in 2012 under Ratten.

 

[JustaBattler]

Player development and management - someone has to do it.

 

[KennyHunter9]

MM is paid over $1m a year to be our coach. For that money, he can manage his behaviour. It is essential these days given the media and social media. We are a club with a membership less than what it should be, and likely to fall further behind as we rebuild parts of our list. This is not the time to be pi$$ing off the media. MM will end up costing us a lot more than $1m a year if he keeps going down this path. It's not smart. It has to stop.

 

[AndrewVadermk2]

MM is paid over $1m a year to be our coach. For that money, he can manage his behaviour. It is essential these days given the media and social media. We are a club with a membership less than what it should be, and likely to fall further behind as we rebuild parts of our list. This is not the time to be pi$$ing off the media. MM will end up costing us a lot more than $1m a year if he keeps going down this path. It's not smart. It has to stop.

was Eddie M right all along??? oh dear me!! surely not !!! hahaha

 

[Ellas Ellas]

You're underselling just how good Judd was. Judd won us a lot of games off his own boot, he's just a player now, it's up there with the Suns losing Ablett though they have a lot more gun kids than we do/did. You're also forgetting the players who have gone past their best footy. Jamison, Simpson, Mclean, Armfield, Waite and Carrazzo were important cogs in Ratten's Carlton and they are well below what they were, their best is long behind them. Kreuzer, Henderson, Garlett, Thomas and Tuohy have been injured, unfit or playing crap football all year, a few of them featured heavily in Ratten's team too. Scotland and Betts, your talking about a guy who was near or was a best and fairest and the other our leading goal kicker, huge loss as well. We've got no forwards who are kicking goals and a poor midfield. It's not hard to see. Why can't all the Ratten fans tell me why his team went from finishing 5th in 2011 to 10th the next year? People have to be blind to fail to see the list began falling apart in 2012 under Ratten.

OMG are you serious? We were decimated with injury. 2012 was a write off. If I had have told you prior to that year what would happen to us injury wise you would have written us off. A great way to judge us is our first three rounds when we were injury free.

Any players you have up there that aren't performing under Malthouse have nothing to do with Ratts. Malthouse could have kept Eddie but he opted for his best mate Thomas. Mclean was never a vital cog for Ratten other than late 2012. He certainly didn't feature in 2011. Carrazzo has been in and out with injury for years. Waite is underperforming as is Tuohy, as is Garlett but they are not injured. Jamison and Simpson are not well below what they were. Kreuzer hasn't played regular good football for years now.

Point being any injured players that Malthouse has dealt with Ratten was not getting much out of them either in terms of consistently getting on the park. Kreuzer was always injured, Jamo kept getting hurt, Waite was in and out, Carrazzo was playing around 15 games a season. And the players that are underperforming? WTF has that got to do with Ratten that is Malthouse's failing, nothing more. If he can't get the best out of these blokes he shouldn't be in the job because the previous bloke in charge had them flying when out on the park.

Re Judd the maturing of the rest of the list balances that up to some extent. Like I said, we shouldn't be challenging but to say we are this bad (fifth last on the ladder) and not hold the coach accountable for it one bit, that my friend is blindness, blind faith to be exact. I'm not willing to show the same blind faith you are. If we had have picked up a rookie coach who had produced the same as Malthouse he'd be on his way out.

 

[JustaBattler]

Walker/Betts/Garlett and Yarran where a highly productive mosquito fleet. Judd/Murphy/Carrazzo and Kreuzer were highly efficient at extracting the ball and Gibbs/Scotland were very good at pinpointing kicks to Simpson on re the rebound. That was Carlton at its best - good enough to win shoot outs and that was back in 2011 - and Clubs soon found out the best way to stop Carlton's game plan- just crowd the stoppages.

It is three years later now - injury and age have taken their toll - and lack of decent back-ups ( due to Suns/GWS list monopoly as well as lower Clubs taking remainders ) sees Carlton where it is at.

Malthouse is guilty of not being able to conjure miracles.

 

[AndrewVadermk2]

Walker/Betts/Garlett and Yarran where a highly productive mosquito fleet. Judd/Murphy/Carrazzo and Kreuzer were highly efficient at extracting the ball and Gibbs/Scotland were very good at pinpointing kicks to Simpson on re the rebound. That was Carlton at its best - good enough to win shoot outs and that was back in 2011 - and Clubs soon found out the best way to stop Carlton's game plan- just crowd the stoppages.

It is three years later now - injury and age have taken their toll - and lack of decent back-ups ( due to Suns/GWS list monopoly as well as lower Clubs taking remainders ) sees Carlton where it is at.

Malthouse is guilty of not being able to conjure miracles.

gws/gc what??? seriously this is an old old excuse. Reality is when was the last time hawks/syd/geelong/freo had really good draft pics? we can only play the oh look at all the talent gone game for so long.

 

[blueboy25]

Mick has always been the type of character that is happy to take the heat from the press, in order to protect his players or his boys as he likes to call them. This has worked for him in the past but he has probably gone a bit too far and needs to change his approach with the press just a little bit. I don't want him sitting there like a smarmy bastard like Thompson.

I think he is doing the best he can with the list at his disposal and he is a proud man and I am sure he is doing everything in his power to get the club back to where it should be in the coming years. To make sure this happens he needs full buy in from the board which going on past history of our great club is not very likely.

 

[jj1978]

gws/gc what??? seriously this is an old old excuse. Reality is when was the last time hawks/syd/geelong/freo had really good draft pics? we can only play the oh look at all the talent gone game for so long.

Hawks, Syd have dealt with the pilfering of the draft by the GCS and GWS by trading well and picking up players, whereas all of them we're relatively lucky prior to the GCS and GWS comprimised drafts as the bulk of their quality on their list was drafted prior to those draft. You forget for Hawthorn players like Roughhead, Hodge, Mitchell and previously Franklin their core backbone were taken in uncompromised drafts years, which has followed up with good trading/recruiting of Gibson, Hale, McEvoy, Gunston, etc etc.

Geelong is still currently doing ok thanks in effort to the remainder of their core stars from years ago, Selwood, Taylor, Stevie J, Bartel etc

Sydney, been very astute with trading... take out Franklin this year and Tippet from their side and they would've still won a lot but I don't think it would've been 12 in a row.

And for Freo; Sandilands, Pavlich still the core of this mob.

Also Geelong and Hawthorn have kept up thanks to free agency picks they've acquired for losing Franklin, Ablett etc giving them a better chance to bring in some young quality or trade.

The above 4 lists are all products of good list management since the early-mid 2000's to now and also being able to navigate the compromised drafts quite well. A factor is coaching I agree, but whose to say that Malthouse with any of the above 4 teams would either have them running just as well or even better..

 

[Aphrodite]

I admire your positiveness Ellas Ellas.
I'm just extremely disappointed (if true ) that hendo isn't injured.
If this is case he must go back and be a swingwan when required as his best football is down back

What an odd thing to say!

 

[Ellas Ellas]

A factor is coaching I agree, but whose to say that Malthouse with any of the above 4 teams would either have them running just as well or even better..

If he was at say Geelong, they would have Motlop running around in the reserves and Daisy on their list.

 

[Mezzoculo]

Pride is a dish best served in a bush.

...with a cold bird in the hand.

 

[AndrewVadermk2]

What an odd thing to say!

yes i can see how this was a bit vague, i am extremely dissapointed as hendo has looked played at times this year as if he was, so yea if he isnt injured i am disappointed.

 

[Ellas Ellas]

Walker/Betts/Garlett and Yarran where a highly productive mosquito fleet. Judd/Murphy/Carrazzo and Kreuzer were highly efficient at extracting the ball and Gibbs/Scotland were very good at pinpointing kicks to Simpson on re the rebound.

Malthouse could still have that highly productive mosquito fleet doing their thing, it's by his choice that it isn't happening. Kreuzer was missing more often than not under Ratten as well. We still have the rest playing other than Scotland but we also now have Menzel, Docherty and Everitt who more than compensate for his loss.

 

[murphbf08]

I really don't understand how people can be defending malthouse, I mean really he has failed miserably. He was brought in to get us in the finals, and we will finish bottom four. He has brought in his own assistant coaches and adopted his game plan, and you know what it hasn't worked. You can make all the excuses in the world, it doesn't matter. Brett Ratten didn't get these excuses paid to him . We have a reasonably healthy list compared to everyone else. So what now? Kernahan knows it was a mistake getting malthouse in , why can't everyone else see it.
He gets one more year and if he fails again piss him off. Who has improved under malthouse? yarran? he wasn't bad two years ago, has malthouse really done anything except put him back in the spot that ratten had him? Who else? armfield, thouhy, garlett, mclean have all gone backwards, ok injury may have something to do with it as well, but everyone gets injuries.
Our recruiting has been terrible so why didn't we get the best coach around to build a side with not this overpaid, whinging sook who thinks the sun shines out of his arse.

 

[AndrewVadermk2]

Hawks, Syd have dealt with the pilfering of the draft by the GCS and GWS by trading well and picking up players, whereas all of them we're relatively lucky prior to the GCS and GWS comprimised drafts as the bulk of their quality on their list was drafted prior to those draft. You forget for Hawthorn players like Roughhead, Hodge, Mitchell and previously Franklin their core backbone were taken in uncompromised drafts years, which has followed up with good trading/recruiting of Gibson, Hale, McEvoy, Gunston, etc etc.

Geelong is still currently doing ok thanks in effort to the remainder of their core stars from years ago, Selwood, Taylor, Stevie J, Bartel etc

Sydney, been very astute with trading... take out Franklin this year and Tippet from their side and they would've still won a lot but I don't think it would've been 12 in a row.

And for Freo; Sandilands, Pavlich still the core of this mob.

Also Geelong and Hawthorn have kept up thanks to free agency picks they've acquired for losing Franklin, Ablett etc giving them a better chance to bring in some young quality or trade.

The above 4 lists are all products of good list management since the early-mid 2000's to now and also being able to navigate the compromised drafts quite well. A factor is coaching I agree, but whose to say that Malthouse with any of the above 4 teams would either have them running just as well or even better..

the point im making is something we both agree with. Good drafting/trading and most importantly list management/development. ince we suck bigtime in alot of these fundamental areas then we cannot cry poor about the afl choice to do this crap compromised drafts excercise. I dont agree but i feel looking for excuses creates a bad culture of accepting failure. We move on, we grit our teeth, we act appropriately to media and fans the like, we be professional and get the shit together, wont happen over night, but can we seriously have pratt and mathieson on the same board??

we are a long way off but rome wasnt built in a day. Lerts hope the boys club is getting smashed by our new pres cause i dont accept the crap anymore. But i will always be a blue.

 

[Magruder]

I admire your positiveness Ellas Ellas.
I'm just extremely disappointed (if true ) that hendo isn't injured.
If this is case he must go back and be a swingwan when required as his best football is down back

Hendo CHB is potential AA.
Disciplined yet creative and provides a valuable option to go forward if we are chasing a game.