Mick Malthouse says the AFL has an ageism problem and being a ‘good bloke’ can help land a job
Plenty of coaches have tried and failed in sport, only to bounce back when given another opportunity, but Mick Malthouse laments the fact so few sacked coaches get a second chance to prove themselves in the cut-throat AFL.
Carlton
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Mick Malthouse says Claudio Ranieri’s successful term as Leicester’s miracle title-winning manager proves the AFL coaching system has a toxic problem with ageism.
Malthouse told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast too many star coaches were dispatched and never called on again purely because of their birth certificate.
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The star premiership coach said recently he would consider being a coaching mentor to a club, with the four-club coach only 65 years of age.
But he said Ranieri’s success in winning the 2015-16 title, after coaching at 16 previous clubs and having been sacked on four separate occasions, would never have happened in the AFL.
He bemoaned the brain drain in the AFL with too many star coaches pushed out and not returning.
“There is the tragedy in (Australian) sport, we have an intolerance to age, we have an intolerance to second chance at coaching level,” he said.
“For no apparent reason, we are trailblazers in Australia, but also we follow the leader in others. I am an EPL tragic and I am a rugby union tragic and I am (NFL) football fan.
“But when you analyse the Leicester coach who won the title and got sacked before the next season — and he had already been sacked four times before.
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“I know Gary Ayres did coach two clubs but he is at a poor football club (at Port Melbourne) and he has been able to go to a poor football club and win multiple premierships.
“You guys write about him more in hope but I don’t think a club will look at him, and yet personally I look back and go ‘Terry Wallace, Dean Laidley, Gary Ayres, Guy McKenna.
“There are others too and we tend to put them in a trash heap.
SACKED: NEVER-BEFORE-HEARD DETAILS OF MICK’S PIES AXING
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“I have this horrid feeling that it is based on how far you can kick the footy or mark the footy, or perhaps whether you are a good bloke or whether you have a beer with them, can you sit in the back room and have a smoke with them?
“If you are not in that category, you are not going to be considered, I would say there is a lot of wasted grey matter out there that could certainly assist in not only sport but in industry and whatever else.”
There are only two second-time coaches in the AFL — John Worsfold and Ross Lyon — with Brett Ratten keen to be St Kilda’s coach as he proves himself again as an interim coach.
Originally published as Mick Malthouse says the AFL has an ageism problem and being a ‘good bloke’ can help land a job
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