Alan Didak stands up for Mick Malthouse in wake of Mitch Robinson coaching barbs

Collingwood premiership star Alan Didak has delivered a backhander to Mitch Robinson after the Lion said coaching great Mick Malthouse ruined his time at Carlton.

Alan Didak has gone in to bat for Mick Malthouse over MItch Robinson's comments against the ex-Blues coach.

Enigmatic Magpies great Alan Didak has delivered a backhander to Lion Mitch Robinson over his complaints about former coach Mick Malthouse.

The Brisbane hard nut said this week that Malthouse was so negative as Carlton coach he dreaded going to the club.

But Didak, who thrived under Malthouse’s coaching, winning a premiership with the Pies in 2010 and becoming a dual All Australian and best and fairest winner, believes Mick did Robinson “a favour in the end” as he was a fringe player at the Blues.

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“Players from 1-18, they used to love Malthouse, and from 18-25, they’d like him, and after that players hated him because they weren’t getting a game,” Didak said on SEN.

“I believe that Mitch, at Carlton, was one of those players (outside the 25), and I think Mick did him a favour in the end.

“He’s gone off to Brisbane and become a very, very good player, they love him up there.

“He’s doing a really, really good role for that team, but I think if Mitch was playing every single week (at Carlton), he’d absolutely love him (Malthouse).”

Mick Malthouse has a great supporter in former premiership charge Alan Didak.

Robinson detailed how tough his life was under Malthouse.

“I didn’t want to get in the car and go to work because it was just a hard place to go to,” Robinson said of his 2013-14 seasons at Carlton on his iTunes and YouTube show Rip Through it.

“He made it very tough for me to enjoy the game and to enjoy the environment that I was in at the Carlton footy club, which evidently led to my delisting.”

Robinson said Malthouse could be suited to a position as a senior mentor to a younger coach, “But, in saying that, in all honesty, I believe he wouldn’t fit into today’s coaching roles because you have to have levels of communication and when he breaks players down he really struggles to bring them back up. That’s what I saw first-hand and through word of mouth.

“He has that tough love, he’s an old-school coach, he knows how to give you a spray, but ... (in) today’s game you’ve got to have all levels of communication and be able to talk to young players ... it’s more of a teaching background and I just don’t think he has that.”

Mitch Robinson didn’t enjoy his time under Mick Malthouse at Carlton.

Malthouse said on ABC Radio he would take a call from any of the three clubs — the Saints, Carlton and North — with coaching vacancies.

“I am a realist and I am only saying yes because I know it won’t happen,” Malthouse said.

“I feel like I am coaching (anyway). You could do a lot worse than sit there and take that pressure again ... We sit here in the commentary box and think, ‘can you add value to a club’ and it’s all I ask (myself).”

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He found one backer in former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas, who said on Wednesday that Malthouse was an “original Saint” who could return to the club where he started his VFL career as a player in 1972.

“Saints need someone strong who can drive breakthrough performance,” Thomas wrote on Twitter.

“They need a leader not a puppet.

“If he (Malthouse) was the best credentialed candidate currently available, I’d rather go with him than a rookie or unproven coach until a star becomes available.”

Listen to Mitch Robinson’s podcast HERE.