Mick Malthouse: Why Carlton will remain trapped in a time warp unless club changes direction

Ross Lyon is out of the running but Mick Malthouse says no coach will succeed at Carlton until the Blues fix one fundamental problem.

Mick Malthouse leaves the huddle. Picture: Colleen Petch

I have been at six football clubs as a player and coach. For those who think the culture is the same at every football club, you are a long way off the truth.

After I left West Coast, which was a magnificent club, I was in the fortunate position of being approached by a couple of clubs on my return to Victoria.

The most compelling reason to sign with Collingwood was that Eddie McGuire had a very small rear vision mirror and a very large windscreen. It was all about going forward for him, and building on the club’s culture and previous successes.

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Carlton has won only one flag, in 1995, since the introduction of the AFL.

The biggest disappointment of my coaching career is that I should have looked further into Carlton’s lack of forward thinking and its obsession with the past, before I signed on to coach the Blues.

I was staggered, and I still am, at the Carlton board’s preoccupation with past players and past premierships. It drags its VFL success around like a ball and chain.

And it allows past players and high-profile businessmen, who can avoid ramifications by not taking up an elected position, to have too much influence at the club.

I was reminded in one (regular) board meeting that the Blues had won 16 premiership cups. I quickly informed them that they had in fact won just a single AFL premiership (1995) which put the club in the low range for number of flags won since the AFL announced itself in 1990.

I love history. I love acknowledging the greats of the past. But in football, past club greats and past feats don’t win you games of football today or tomorrow.

Malthouse says the biggest disappointment in his coaching career was not delving deeper into Carlton’s lack of forward thinking.

In another board meeting I was informed of a five-year plan to win a premiership. I was in my second year at the club and I was told we were already three years into a plan that I was completely unaware of. They asked for my assessment, but didn’t like the answer.

It came as a great shock to most of the board members that the plan was totally unachievable in that time frame, and that in fact, until the constraints of contract management were lifted we were going to stay a middle-of-the-road team.

Too many players on an ageing list were overpaid or over-committed in lengthy contracts, in contrast to their ability. There was no room to move, or even to retain star power on the hit list of opposing clubs, and until we could afford multiple trades or multiple draft picks we were carrying the burden like baggage.

Malthouse says Eddie McGuire was miles ahead of Carlton with his forward thinking.

This did not sit well with several board members. But without this reality check Carlton was always going to be looking at the teams above it.

The coaches previous to me, and since, would no doubt have felt similar emotions and pressures in regard to the high expectations of the board, without the means to meet them.

I will clarify this by saying that Stephen Kernahan for that one year was outstanding.

A football person in a football environment, he knew how tough it was, and is, to win games of footy. And the football department and staff at Carlton were brilliant and tight like family.

I can’t answer for the board in the past six years. I have no idea of their processes or football intellect. This is not about profit and loss, new stands, AFLW, coterie groups and the like, this is about what supporters want — time in the finals.

Malthouse says some of the Carlton board’s vision when he was there was totally unachievable in the time frame allotted.

I really don’t know David Teague outside of brief encounters and how the media portrays him. But judging by his comments in regard to a lack of support from the board, I can assume he experienced what I and every coach since Denis Pagan has experienced at Carlton.

It just appears that many of those who have been on the Blues’ board hire and fire at will in their own companies and carry that over into the football club.

I am no businessman. I have little concept of it. But I do know that football clubs run on a passionate ticket.

Trust is the No.1 ingredient of a successful football club.

Friendships are built, ups and downs are the norm, and support is a prerequisite for any success.

Malthouse says David Teague probably experienced what he and every coach since Denis Pagan has experienced at Carlton.

There is no doubt about the ability of players at Carlton when you run through the list. It is a club that possibly ranges between fifth and 10th on the ladder. If you think this is an indictment on Teague, you are wrong. For a club to make the final eight the coach needs to be fully supported, and not constantly looking over his shoulder and doubting if he can survive his contract term as Teague has done for most of this year.

There are a lot of things that need to go right, plus a bit of luck, for a club to play finals.

So with a fair playing list, the new Carlton coach will need full support — not make-believe support, not some support, and not for some-of-the-time support — but full support from the board.

If the Blues want a lesson they could talk to Peggy O’Neal and Brendon Gale at Richmond and get their template on how to make a coach feel fully comfortable in his job and able to perform unhindered.

Judging by Carlton president Luke Sayers’ comments that the Blues’ focus is on “sustained and uncompromising high performance” and winning premierships, then I’m not sure they’ve learnt yet.

With Ross Lyon out of the running, this job could go to a proven coach or an unproven coach. It could go to a recycled coach. It doesn’t matter who next coaches Carlton, unless the club uses the Richmond template of support, it will lead to another failure.

My one tip for the Blues, for what it’s worth, is to maintain their cultural past and remember the greats, but move forward, look forward, and charge forward.