Questioning Mick

Firstly a few things about last Saturday's game, because I didn't get a chance to comment on it at the time.

Plenty of people blamed the umpires for the loss last week. Simply not true. Yes there are some games where the umpiring can dramatically alter the outcome of a match (see: Queen's Birthday 2007), but Saturday afternoon at the MCG was not one of them. When Dane Swan is 25 metres out from goal directly in front with no direct pressure and opts to handball to a 50/50 contest you know your team does not deserve to win. I've seen three Collingwood teams this year. The A team (vs. Geelong, vs. Richmond, Anzac Day) that makes you believe we can win the flag, the B team (vs. the Dogs, Brisbane, St. Kilda) that either just wins or just loses and has you questioning the quality of the team, and the F team (Carlton matches, 2nd half vs. the Roos a fortnight ago, Saturday) that has you questioning your will to live. The fact that the F team has come out for the past six quarters is definitely a concern.

The Essendon match was borderline painful to watch. To see the Woods get within a kick twice, and then both times give up easy clearances and goals was horrible. A good team would have stuck the foot on the throat of the opposition after the Didak goal to open the third and the Medhurst goal to open the fourth. Collingwood failed both times, and the only reason they remain in the eight is due to the bizarre results of the same day (St. Kilda losing to West Coast!? That team is cursed). A few things have become clear in the loss...

-Dane Swan and Travis Cloke do not know how to kick a football. This has always been apparent, but it becomes magnified when the team is playing badly. They both suffer from Chad Fletcher syndrome - the ability to rack up countless possessions and use the ball poorly. Dane Swan gets as much ball as anyone in the team and is lauded in the media for his ability to run tirelessly and find the pill. People don't seem to realise that Dane Swan can not kick for goal and can not hit targets. His disposal by foot is shocking. Time and time again his kicks go over the heads of his targets. It's infuriating. Travis Cloke's problem is a little more publicised. It seemed as though he'd fixed his problem to a degree. 23 goals 14 entering Saturday was a respectable return. 3.3 on Saturday and the doubts are well and truly formed. 40 metres out on a slight angle and I have zero faith that Travis will nail that kick. Last year he was leaning back on his kick and his kicks, as the law of physics would state, were drifting wide right. This year the problem is less clear. He's still not kicking through the ball though. The difference between Travis Cloke being a good or bad kick is the difference between Collingwood finishing 3rd or 4th, or 7th or 8th.

-Shane O'Bree doesn't warrant a place on the field. He gets the ball and doesn't even look where he's kicking. He blazes away every single time. You can find players of his quality in the VFL with ease.

-The backline without James Clement has no direction or sense of purpose at all. We need a quarterback, a general. More on Heath later.

-Josh Fraser not playing is an absolute joke. If he's fit enough to play as a half forward flank you have to play him. People don't seem to realise this, but having watched Josh Fraser play for nine years it's become clear that he is better as a forward flanker than a ruckman. He's too soft to be a ruckman. He doesn't get any taps to advantage. Sure he burns them around the ground with skill and fitness, but wouldn't you rather have an intelligent tall forward that creates match-up nightmares for the opposition each week and will kick 45 goals for you in a season? It's pathetic.

-Paul Medhurst is officially a superstar. I don't say this lightly, but Saturday Paul Medhurst was the new Nathan Buckley. What made Buckley so special was that despite playing on a piss poor team for years he still made you want to watch the team just to see him play. Buckley was a rare player that gave you the sense that every time he got the ball he was going to do something special. On Saturday, Medhurst was that player. He shone brightly on a team swallowed in mediocrity, he gave you the sense that every time he got near the ball he would have an impact. Sure he's no Bucks, but he's been the best thing about 2008.

The big story out of the match though was Mick Malthouse. Is he past it? The media seems to think that he is, and given Collingwood's performances the past fortnight it's almost hard to speak to the contrary. Having seen Mick's work for nine years, in a nutshell, these are my basic thoughts on him: in terms of making his players play hard and fitness rotations few are better, in terms of matchups, structure and in-game adjustments he's one of the worst in the league. Collingwood's reputation as a tough grind-it-out team is purely Malthouse's work. You look at Dale Thomas and Leon Davis and don't think for a second they'd be great tacklers, but they are, and that's thanks to Malthouse. Things like that Mick is great with. In terms of football science though, I've come to one conclusion - he has no idea.

You go through his term at Collingwood and it's difficult to find any truly astute coaching decisions. Swinging Buckley forward in '06 was effective but spawned more so by Buckley's weary hamstrings than Malthouse's brain. I will admit that the way Malthouse swings guys like Medhurst and Didak (West Coast final last year, brilliance) into the midfield is very successful, but honestly something that all coaches should do. Malthouse makes some effective coaching decisions, but he makes plenty of bad ones too. Watching him try to turn Jason Cloke into a key forward for years was excruciating. Cloke in his day was the best spoiler in the competition and the best courageous mark guy. In 2002 he was probably the best loose defender in the league. Problem was he could never kick. What does Malthouse do? Tries to turn him into a goalkicking centre half forward. It was plain dumb, and it doesn't take a genius to see he's trying to do the same with Nick Maxwell. Sometimes Mick, just sometimes, maybe you should let a player excel at what they do best.

Malthouse's greatest strength and weakness lies in how much responsibility he gives to young players. Sometimes it works - see: Nathan Brown on Matthew Pavlich on debut this year, Travis Cloke on debut Anzac Day 2005, the various roles of Tyson Goldsack - but often it fails, and fails horribly. Aside from atrocious umpiring, the lone reason Collingwood lost on Queen's birthday last year was Malthouse's decision to put (and stick with) first gamer Danny Stanley on Russell Robertson. Robertson promptly kicked 7 goals and singlehandedly won the match for the Dees. Malthouse has twice placed youngsters on Brendon Fevola this year and been punished by Fevola's gamewinning efforts. I will never ever get over Malthouse's decision to play Tristen Walker in the 2003 grand final. Offenses like these are numerous.

They say that the coaching decision of 2008 was Terry Wallace's moving of Matthew Richardson to the wing. What is Matthew Richardson? He's a tall, super athletic, fit player with tremendous marking ability that struggles dearly around goal. So it makes sense to maximise this supreme athleticism of the bloke and stick him on the wing, relieving him of goalkicking pressures. Pity we can't do something like that. Oh. Wait. We can. Travis Cloke is built exactly in the mould of Matthew Richardson. Strong, athletic, fit, hands of Spiderman. And he can't kick for goal. Why not relieve Travis of his goalkicking duties and let him play the game without those pressures? Sure I am mindful of the ultimate desire to turn Travis into an elite forward, but what's the harm in sticking him on the wing and letting him drift towards goal? With the way Paul Medhurst is playing, we already have a gun forward. We'd need a tall forward to replace Travis, and Josh Fraser is the clear logical choice. This will never happen though. This year with Rocca, Reid, Rusling and Dawes all down I can appreciate the need to have Travis in the forward line. But next year with any of those guys up forward, there's no reason not to at least try Travis in the Richo role, barring an unforseen change in goalkicking mechanics. Oh yeah and Chris Tarrant wouldn't have been bad in that role either.

The most glaring and publicised error this year on Malthouse's behalf has obviously been the misuse of Heath Shaw. I don't care what the brilliance of the opposing coach is, when you have a player as talented as Heath Shaw you can't have him being taken out of games on a regular basis.