The tale of the last few days has all been about Malthouse, though. His outburst against Cameron Ling last weekend led to accusations of being a ‘friendless bully’ while plenty of others lined up to take pot shots at him.
The week still ended on a high note for the veteran coach as his side produced their best win of the year to beat North Melbourne by 23 points on Friday night.
Out on their feet after several players suffered serious injuries, the Blues looked under the pump as North cut a 20-point deficit down to just two points before three-quarter time.
Yet his tired players refused to buckle and instead dominated North in the last quarter, kicking six goals to two as the Blues ran away with the win.
After the last week, the main event was always going to be the post-match press conference and while Malthouse was actually pretty informative and open in it, there was still an edge.
That became increasingly evident when the coach refused to speculate on the severity of knee injuries to Andrejs Everitt and Troy Menzel and he just got more tetchy when asked by Channel 7’s Mark Stevens about how tough the week had been.
“They’re all tough,” he declared as he stood up and started to leave.
“Any regrets at all about what happened?” Stevens continued, bringing fired-up Mick back to the fray.
“I’m sorry, do I need to go to confession or something,” he replied. “Have I murdered someone?”
And with that Malthouse stalked from the room, although not without shooting a venomous stare in Stevens’ direction.
Malthouse, though, could at least take heart from his side’s desire and from two inspired selections as former Brisbane and Collingwood ruckman Cameron Wood returned to the AFL after two years to play a significant role around the ground.
And, of course there was also Jarrad Waite, who returned to the senior side after being dropped to kick four goals in a superb combination with Lachie Henderson (six goals).
“I hope the process is in place now that Jarrad can be a good contributor for us,” Malthouse declared, effectively telling the erratic forward once again to step into line and be smart about it.
But for Brad Scott, there were no positives as his North Melbourne side once again lost a match to a lesser opponent.
At their best, the Roos may have beaten Fremantle, Sydney, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn but put them up against a Brisbane (17th at the time) or Carlton (14th) and the intensity hasn’t been there.
With their place in the finals now in jeopardy, Scott seemed at a loss to explain his side’s Jekyll and Hyde ways.
“You got to pay the price,” declared Scott.
“If you’re going to win you’ve got to go out there and win it. You can’t hope the opposition loses it and I felt tonight there was a stink amongst our group and certainly the evidence is there for all to see.
“It’s not just effort,” he added. “I think the effort is one thing but it’s more an intangible than even effort.
“It’s more just sitting back and hoping against sides that are below us on the ladder, whereas when we know we play good sides, there’s no hoping, you expect them to play well and you’ve got to beat them and take it off them.”
Scott forecast a fortnight of soul-searching, starting with himself.
“You always look in the mirror first. Cleary there’s something I’m not doing or haven’t found yet,” he said.
“I’ll just work extremely hard on finding out what it is.
“The system’s good. We know the system works ‘cause it beats the best. It’s just developing a strong mind set to get it done all the time. Because it’s really clear to me that that’s the difference between us and the best ‘cause the best produce it all the time.”