Sacked Podcast: Mick Malthouse Part 2 — The Carlton years

Mick Malthouse says he went into Carlton with grand plans as the club’s new coach but quickly found he was doomed from the start.

Mick Malthouse says a “diabolical” salary cap position and a series of disastrous contracts to overpaid players consigned Carlton to a long period of failure.

Malthouse arrived at Carlton in 2013 and quickly became aware players he was keen to move on because of a lack of output were instead contracted long-term.

Malthouse butted heads with the club’s hierarchy on the direction of the list, keen to retain a blend of young kids and experienced talent instead of embarking upon a full rebuild.

As he told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast, instead the list management group was keen to trade off players he believes included Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs.

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He says being handcuffed by existing contracts badly hampered Carlton’s development, with the Blues not playing finals since his first season in 2013.

He was eventually sacked halfway through his third season when the club’s powerbrokers believed he could not help the rebuild despite that year becoming footy’s longest-serving coach.

Mick Malthouse says Carlton’s extensive list rebuild was hampered by long-term contracts and salary cap issues.

Finally the club’s long rebuild is paying dividends but a series of poor list management decisions and horror drafts has delayed that process by several years.

“I only had three players who left in that first year and I can remember someone saying you must be satisfied with your list because you only made three list changes,” he said.

“I had a feeling at Collingwood there was about 25 in two years. I hate using the word cut because these are young men who have all their life dreamt of being footballers, so I would rather say we have differences of opinion and we move in a different direction.

“I want to make changes, but I couldn’t do it.

“That wasn’t (football boss) Andrew McKay, but whoever was doing the salary cap and the contracts before that, it was diabolical.

“You wouldn’t have said it was a great football side and it wasn’t knocking down the door for a shot at a Grand Final.

“So it needed to be changed dramatically.”

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