Old Coaches Enthrall
April 5th 2008 01:04
I have always had trouble warming to Mick. I’m not sure whether it is because I don’t like his grumpy manner, or because I don’t like the team that he coaches. I was too young to know him when he was coaching Footscray in the early to mid eighties, and I haven’t warmed to him over the last twenty years or so when he has coached the Eagles and the Magpies. The fact that I don’t like the Eagles and the Pies that much may be because I couldn’t warm to Mick. Mind you, maybe it’s the other way around.
I am also a little nonchalant about Leigh. I think the reason that I don’t like Leigh all that much is because the sides that he coaches seem to more often than not beat my beloved Bombers. It always seems that in the big games, Leigh wins. His Collingwood beat the Bombers in the 1990 Grand Final and the way he pumped his fists with such conviction before the final siren gladdened the hearts of the black and white army as much as it sickened the Bomber faithful all around the country.
He was back at it in 2001 when his Brisbane Lions beat the Bombers on Grand Final day. Brisbane had everyone that didn’t barrack for Essendon barracking for them that day, and didn’t the Bomber fans know it. Leigh just keeps winning.
But Leigh Matthew and Mick Malthouse are great for the game of footy. They always have been, but they are more so now than ever. In a game of rotations, interchange merry-go-rounds, handball happy game styles and confusing tactics, they are the link to the past when footy was old fashioned and great. They best displayed this last Friday night when their respective teams met at the GABBA. It was good old fashioned accountable footy, with good old fashioned coaches leading the way. There were still the rotations and Collingwood had a record amount of interchanges, but the footy was hard, disciplined and accountable. The players were battered and bruised by the end of the game and the centre square was muddy – like they used to be. Both teams still kick the ball long to the forward line and have big forwards leading out to take the ball. Both teams stick to the game plan and like their coaches, both teams are tough.
And, in the end, nothing much changed from the last twenty years. Mick was grumpy and Leigh was the winner.
I am also a little nonchalant about Leigh. I think the reason that I don’t like Leigh all that much is because the sides that he coaches seem to more often than not beat my beloved Bombers. It always seems that in the big games, Leigh wins. His Collingwood beat the Bombers in the 1990 Grand Final and the way he pumped his fists with such conviction before the final siren gladdened the hearts of the black and white army as much as it sickened the Bomber faithful all around the country.
He was back at it in 2001 when his Brisbane Lions beat the Bombers on Grand Final day. Brisbane had everyone that didn’t barrack for Essendon barracking for them that day, and didn’t the Bomber fans know it. Leigh just keeps winning.
But Leigh Matthew and Mick Malthouse are great for the game of footy. They always have been, but they are more so now than ever. In a game of rotations, interchange merry-go-rounds, handball happy game styles and confusing tactics, they are the link to the past when footy was old fashioned and great. They best displayed this last Friday night when their respective teams met at the GABBA. It was good old fashioned accountable footy, with good old fashioned coaches leading the way. There were still the rotations and Collingwood had a record amount of interchanges, but the footy was hard, disciplined and accountable. The players were battered and bruised by the end of the game and the centre square was muddy – like they used to be. Both teams still kick the ball long to the forward line and have big forwards leading out to take the ball. Both teams stick to the game plan and like their coaches, both teams are tough.
And, in the end, nothing much changed from the last twenty years. Mick was grumpy and Leigh was the winner.
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