Mick Malthouse opens up on the pressure of coaching and just how much of a toll it can take
I could barely walk the day after a game when I was a player, but that doesn’t compare to how I felt after a game as coach. MICK MALTHOUSE on the all-encompassing pressure - and this year’s coaching move “unlike anything” he’s seen before.
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WHEN Liverpool was beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League final last weekend, it was Reds manager Jurgen Klopp’s sixth major title loss.
He looked utterly dejected after the game and I felt for him.
How does he cope with those missed opportunities, and the outside judgment?
He did win the German league twice as manager of Borussia Dortmund as well as the 2012 German Cup, and soccer experts have praised him for being successful with teams that aren’t necessarily full of talent.
But that wouldn’t make him feel any better. I know it wouldn’t.
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The longer you coach, winning and losing becomes defined like day and night.
You would think a win and a loss would share equal consciousness, but they don’t for a coach. A win is fleeting relief, an adrenaline rush, but it’s short lived.
A loss stays with you until the start of the next game. And it intensifies year after year, until it becomes all encompassing.
Damien Hardwick has been through it all with Richmond.
By the end of last year he was able to celebrate the highest of highs and the exhalation of relief that comes with it.
But if anyone thinks he is satisfied with that one premiership they need only to look at the Tigers’ round 9 and 10 games — a loss against the Eagles and a tight win over St Kilda — to see the pressure that has re-emerged on his face.
Pressure that he puts on himself; pressure that comes from the board, the supporters, the players, the football administration, family and the media; pressure that is seen in the blood pressure that reddens his face as he becomes more and more animated in the box and at the breaks.
Hardwick knows what is at stake.
Adam Simpson and Don Pyke do, too. But they show it in a different way.
Calm and measured, they are two of the most calculated and unruffled people in football, but that doesn’t mean their insides aren’t churning during a loss.
Pyke’s three-quarter-time approach last Sunday, when his team was getting smashed by Melbourne 18.6 to 5.4, was to stare down each one of his players.
It was unlike anything I’ve seen before, but it sent a clear message to everyone: he was angry.
I may have had intentions to do something similar at times in my coaching career, but by the time I reached the white line from the box, I would have lost all sense of decorum.
If I was angry, I showed it.
Sometimes a good burst of anger in the box or at the breaks does wonders for your psyche.
It clears your head and clears your emotions and allows you to refocus.
Sometimes apologies were warranted on a Monday morning, but for the most part, the longer you coached a group the more they got to know you and how you conveyed your message.
An outburst like that reminds them how invested you are.
Because while every coach has his own style, the one trait that is the same is his commitment.
To explain the utter exhaustion you feel after a game is almost impossible.
I could barely walk the day after a game when I was a player, but that doesn’t compare to how I felt after a game as a coach.
The night of a match was always a write-off through sheer mental and emotional fatigue.
My family knew it. My friends knew it. And I dare say there are 18 groups of family and friends who also know it right now.
Chris Fagan, going on 57, has aged unbelievably since taking on the job at Brisbane. (No offence, Chris, I went grey within my first few years of coaching.)
You can see him ride every shot on goal, every bump and tackle, and every Lions turnover during a game.
His team is one and nine, with two five-point losses and a seven-point loss among them. Close but not close enough, and Fagan is feeling it.
Leon Cameron, leading a GWS team with such high expectations this season, is looking more stooped and his limp has become more pronounced.
The pressure is clearly taking a physical toll on him.
Four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson has always worn his heart on his sleeve.
When he feels under pressure during a game he goes to the bench, where you can’t see the game as well, but you can get a better feel for it.
Entering round 11 his team was outside the eight and he has been the subject of contract scrutiny. The strain is etched in the furrows of his brow.
For John Worsfold and Nathan Buckley, the thousand-yard stare they give on their way to the rooms after a loss is the measure of their emotions.
I can’t get into their skin, but I am betting that in those times they are thinking about the “what ifs” of the game just played.
Because you wish you could run out on the field for your players sometimes.
They are in your charge all week, but at the first centre bounce you are totally in their hands.
You make the moves and give the rev ups, but it’s the players who kick or miss the goals, who take the marks or fall behind, who are first to the footy or left chasing it.
Everything fell into place for Luke Beveridge in 2016. But this year I have seen him walk onto the ground on a few occasions looking like a desperate man.
Against Carlton, when the Bulldogs were constantly challenged, he looked to be almost willing his young team over the line.
He looks wrung out. I know how he feels.
As you enter each round, at the forefront of your mind is the game about to be played.
But in the back of your mind is the pressure that builds up from the supporters’ expectations, the board’s demands, the players’ needs and the media’s scrutiny.
It’s tangible, like a tightening noose, and you can only fight it away by focusing on the immediate — the game.
It reveals itself on your face and in your demeanour during high-pressure moments and after the match.
I may not have painted a pretty picture of coaching here, but I wouldn’t trade in my time as coach for anything.
When you are in charge there is new meaning to, “Don’t count the days.”
A lasting memory of mine from Collingwood’s 2010 premiership is seeing a young boy in the stands, wearing a St Kilda jumper, in tears.
It was a profound reminder of the depth of emotion involved in a result.
You never want to disappoint your supporters. There is genuine pride in winning them a premiership.
The gift of giving a player his first game is priceless. The adrenaline rush of a win is intoxicating. Beyond those reasons, coaching is in your blood.
And that’s why Jurgen Klopp will front up again as Liverpool’s manager, and do all he can to win a second major title.
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Originally published as Mick Malthouse opens up on the pressure of coaching and just how much of a toll it can take
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