The secret life of Mickey Malthouse

[Clemo]

Well Billy Connoly from the Dorkers thinks MM has. Read on...
"Connolly stirs the Malthouse rivalry
3:58:06 PM Tue 11 June, 2002
Samantha Lane
afl.com.au
In what he believes will be a “history-making day”, Fremantle coach Chris Connolly is out to seek revenge against ex-West Coast Eagles coach Michael Malthouse when Collingwood meets the Dockers in Perth on Sunday.
Connolly spoke freely about the historically bad blood between his young club and the once dominant West Coast Eagles, comparing Malthouse’s attitude at that time to that of the infamous Star Wars character Darth Vadar.
“He (Malthouse) made sure he pressured the club in a big way and it’d be nice to beat Mick along the way. I’m sure it would satisfy a lot of Fremantle people and it’s important,” Connolly said.
“He created an environment that did put the club through a lot of pain, and that’s the environment he created in Perth.”
“When Fremantle set up, in some ways Mick Malthouse as the coach of the West Coast Eagles was like Darth Vadar to the Fremantle Football Club.”
Malthouse did not attend the press conference with Connolly - despite having spoken less than an hour earlier at the same venue with club president Eddie McGuire and AFL chief Wayne Jackson - instead sending his assistant Dean Laidley.
Fremantle has beaten West Coast on just two occasions in its nine-year history, and managed just one sweet victory over its local rival during Malthouse’s term as coach.
“I think Mick had a team that was in finals mode and had to make every post a winner, and he wasn’t going to give Fremantle any respite at all. You can see the logic behind that,” Connolly said.
However following two troublesome years under Ken Judge – in which West Coast placed 13th and 14th – Connolly said the Perth teams had now formed an alliance.
This year, Connolly and recently-appointed West Coast coach John Worsfold have voiced their mutual interest in making Subiaco Oval the most feared ground for visitors in the competition.
Collingwood will attempt to be the first visiting team to beat either of the Subiaco tenants in Perth this season.
“There was a lot of hostility between West Coast and Fremantle, and we think we’ve put that aside, John Worsfold and myself. Because there was no sense, (given) where both clubs were on the ladder,” Connolly said.
“I think it’s filtered out now because West Coast finished 14th and Fremantle 16th, so there was no point in carrying on with it.”
Fremantle is hoping to attract a record crowd for a non-derby match, and Connolly predicted a turnout of about 30,000.
The largest crowd Fremantle has drawn to watch a visiting team was set in 1997, when 28,751 spectators watched the Dockers take on Geelong. The record attendance for the derby, 41,285, was set last year.
Ex-Docker Brodie Holland will miss the clash after he injured a hamstring during Collingwood’s resounding 51-point victory over Melbourne on Monday. The dynamic forward is expected to be sidelined for three weeks.
Connolly said he was confident miraculous Fremantle goalkicker Jeff Farmer will have recovered from a badly corked thigh."


We have the force....with us !

_____________________
Collingwood Forever !
clemo@magpies.net http://dodo.net.au/~clemo




[This message has been edited by Clemo (edited 12 June 2002).]

[Broadie]

Just remember: Darth Vader (Anakin) is the one who brings balance to the force, not Luke. It's Darth who kills the emperor, and so reclaims the galaxy for the republic, just as MM will reclaim Subiaco for us on Sunday.

Broadie

[Clemo]

Brodie...

if Malty is Darth - then Josh Fraser must be Luke Skywalker

may the force be with the Pies !

_____________________
Collingwood Forever !
clemo@magpies.net
http://www.dodo.net.au/~clemo

[Clemo]

Darth Malty strikes back.....
"By Mark Duffield
MELBOURNE http://thegame.thewest.com.au/20020615/afl/news/tg-afl-new-sto60484.html
"MAY the force be with Collingwood."
Mick Malthouse, dubbed Fremantle's Darth Vader by Dockers coach Chris Connolly on Tuesday, took the Star Wars joke a step further yesterday when he discussed his plans for tomorrow's blockbuster game between the two teams.
Connolly consigned Malthouse to the dark side for the unrelenting stand he took as West Coach mentor towards the fledgling Dockers when the Eagles regularly pounded the young port side.
But Malthouse apparently took no offence.
Yesterday, he praised Connolly as a "coach attuned to success" from his time at Hawthorn and said he had discussed the Darth Vader remark with the Fremantle coach. "I wasn't available for the press conference and I was having a cup of tea up in the social club when it all finished and Chris came in and told me," he said. "It went straight over my head.
"He is a nice young bloke who I have a lot of time for and I know he is doing it to get as many through the gate as he possibly can and I fully understand.
"We can all make a bit of fun of it but at the end of the day he is doing it for a reason, to enhance the game."
He said Collingwood was hoping for a crowd of 35,000 at the game at Subiaco Oval.
"Our players play very well before big crowds," he said.
"If there is 35,000 there as they expect, I doubt there will be 35,000 Docker supporters. I know there will be a lot of Collingwood people.
"There may even be a few West Coast people there and it just depends which side of the bed they get out as to whether I am good or bad.
"They might cheer me, they might boo me, who knows."
Malthouse dismissed the travel issue as a mental thing and denied that it had been an issue for any team that he had coached.
He acknowledged tackling the issue as a mental problem when he was first made West Coast coach in 1990.
"It was seen as Christopher Columbus going across the oceans - someone was going to drop off the other side," he said.
"Someone had to get there and prove that they could come back from the other side.
"They were told that they couldn't win and when you are told that you can't win, you end up believing that you can't win."
Malthouse said travel was not an issue last year when West Coast and Fremantle were getting beaten.
"It hasn't ever been a factor with any side that I have coached," he said.
Although Collingwood won in Perth twice last year, no team from the east coast had had a win at Subiaco Oval in 10 attempts this season.
Malthouse said that was purely because both of the WA teams had improved.
"Both are demonstrably better than they were last season and obviously they know how to play their ground," he said. "Of the sides that they have played, a couple have got very close but haven't been able to tip them over the line and we know there is a big challenge in front of us."
Malthouse said a couple of Collingwood players had barracked for West Coast against Sydney last weekend because they wanted the chance to be the first team to win in Perth.
"That is what we are after, we need a big challenge," he said. "We couldn't get a bigger one."
Malthouse played down suggestions that star player Nathan Buckley was carrying a knee injury and was rested late in Monday's match against Melbourne for that reason.
Buckley had had a niggle for about five weeks but had trained on Wednesday and would be fine, he said.
"We have got to get away from Nathan being out there being the only way we can win a game of football," he said.
"They are all going to come off at various stages."


_____________________
Collingwood Forever !
clemo@magpies.net
http://www.dodo.net.au/~clemo