Port Adelaide chairman David Koch has defended his tirade against Mick Malthouse, but admits he went a ‘step too far’
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch has admitted he went a “step too far” with his White Australia comments against Mick Malthouse, but has defended his tirade against the legendary coach.
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Port Adelaide chairman David Koch says he “probably took a step too far on the White Australia’’ comments but has defended his stunning tirade against AFL coaching legend Mick Malthouse.
Slammed for suggesting Malthouse was a racist after the triple premiership coach said the Power was “selling its soul’’ and should abandon its China experiment because of the country’s poor handling of the coronavirus, Koch refused to take a backward step on Monday morning.
“I wanted to make a point,’’ he told FIVEaa.
“Yes, he (Malthouse) got under my skin because he just hasn’t sat down with us and said ‘what are you doing?’
“Rather than being informed and trying to understand he just takes potshots from the sidelines.’’
Koch was slammed by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire and Magpies premiership captain Tony Shaw for his derogatory comments about Malthouse when he said: “If it was up to Mick Malthouse, he’d bring back the White Australia policy in the 50s.”
Koch also called Malthouse a “dinosaur’’.
“I can tell you straight up that Mick Malthouse, there’s not a racist bone in Mick Malthouse’s body and he’s a broad-thinking man,’’ McGuire said.
“I think to be slated back to White Australia was a step not too far, but about 200 steps too far from David and I hope that Kochie sort of looks back on that and says you know what, I might’ve just acted a little bit irrationally on that one and I retract.’’
Shaw slammed Koch on Twitter, describing his call as “gutless’’.
“He (Malthouse) was talking about a football game not endorsing a racist policy akin to apartheid,” Shaw tweeted.
But Koch continued to strongly go into bat for Port’s China strategy which has seen it play an AFL match for premiership points in Shanghai for three consecutive years before this season’s clash against St Kilda was abandoned because of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Mick and Tony have always criticised us for going to China, right from the very start
they haven’t really got what the whole thing was about,’’ he said.
“Mick comes out and says they are doing it for money. I’ve always been quite clear that the reason we do have a China strategy is because football organisations need different sources of revenue and China is part of that to make sure we have a fully funded football program.
“So I’m not sure what he doesn’t get in terms of what I’m saying, yes it is a commercial decision to build other revenue sources.
“We’re a small club, in a small state and you’ve got to think outside the square, so we are.
“We have the backing of the Australian Government, the AFL is our joint venture partner, the South Australian Government is very supportive of us going forward and also the Chinese Government.
“It’s purely commercial and it’s about building trade and not about getting involved in politics.’’
Koch stressed that China was Australia’s biggest trade customer and that “many South Australian jobs are built around trade links with China’’.
“But every minute he (Malthouse) gets he knocks it down,’’ Koch said of Port’s deal with the country.
“He’s never spoken to me personally about it, never sat down and wanted to know what our strategy was, he just takes potshots from the sidelines.’’
Koch said Malthouse’s comments about Port needing to sever ties with China were poorly timed.
“We are in an environment at the moment where there is an anti-Chinese movement that is permeating through to our Chinese Australian community, that they are being targeted,’’ he said.
“Comments from Mick Malthouse don’t go anywhere near trying to calm that down, in fact it inflamed it.
“Yes, I was coming to the defence of our Chinese strategy but also coming to the defence of our Chinese community, saying we have enormous links with China and we’ve got to foster it, not cut them out cold.’’