Mick Malthouse has weighed into the drugs debate, saying the AFL’s three strikes policy does a disservice to those it aims to help and protect.
The issue of drugs and footballers has never been more pertinent, with Travis Tuck’s recent overdose and Ben Cousins’ documentary. The AFL’s drugs code stipulates that the club doctor is informed when a player tests positive, though they are not told who the player is – a policy that Malthouse is uneasy with.
"If we are going to help young players, I think key people at football clubs need to be informed so we can do something about it," he said on Tuesday.
"I'd be very surprised if a bloke like Geoff Walsh at Collingwood shouldn't know something about it, or the player's parents should know something about it, or the psychologist should know something about it, or certainly the club doctor."
"Someone has got to have that information so we can help people. We're not here to see them fall over - we want to nip things in the bud before they become too great."
On a less serious note, Alan Didak, Ben Johnson, Leigh Brown and Simon Prestigicomo are all in line to return for the Qualifying Final but suffice to say, Mick Malthouse is hardly the type to make an early call on who would and wouldn’t get the nod.
"Are there going to be changes? I suspect there could be, but I wouldn’t know how many."
"The medical staff… I will meet after this interview, and they will give me the tick for some and probably, unfortunately, a cross for others - or it may be a 'wait until Friday’."
Bookmakers have the Pies as prohibitive favourites, perhaps courtesy of the Western Bulldogs’ injury list, but Malthouse says there’s no such thing as good things in a finals match. He cited the club’s upset win over Port Adelaide in 2002 to illustrate how finals can throw up unexpected results.
"We went into a game with less than adequate form, without our captain and a couple of others and played a favourite on their ground, Port Adelaide, and we beat them."
"And that’s one of the great lessons in life is that, in a two-horse race, I remind people that those sitting in the grandstand never win you a game."
"They can’t kick, mark or handpass or do anything else but barrack."
"When a side crosses the white line, that’s your best side."