Malthouse – A Football Life

 Malthouse – A Football Life

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       November 26, 2014

 

Author  Christi Malthouse

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-74237-814-5
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:    

Website:    http://www.allenandunwin.com 

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With the 2013 Aussie Rules Football season returning with somewhat of a furore it is perhaps fitting to take a read of Malthouse and once again remind ourselves that Aussie Rules has been around for a very long time and has a long and honourable tradition of doing the “right” thing by your mates, your team and family; none more so than Mick Malthouse and his family.
In Malthouse,we enter the life of Mick Malthouse and family from his early days growing up in Victoria, his journey to become a top line footballer, household name and inspiring league coach, heralded by many for his tough, yet fair way of playing and coaching the game.

Written by daughter Christi, herself a top line sports journalist, she puts together a very honest look at the highs and lows of not only having one of Australia’s most revered Coaches as her Dad but the commitment by the entire family to supporting Malthouse throughout his stellar career.
Funny, often irreverent to the hallowed game of Footy, heartbreaking and emotive you live again those moments of our national sport which made you laugh, cry, scream and redefine the meaning of fair play, all the while blaming the “Ump” and the coach: this one in particular who has bought to the sporting public of Australia some of the more cliff hanging experiences in Grand finals yet to be bettered.
In his last game as coach with Collingwood, the famous team could not get enough momentum together to be able to beat arch nemeses Geelong with the final result, Geelong winning by 38 points.
In the meeting room after the game he gave the team talk ending with his resignation not just from the Club but from the sport– a decision he had made weeks earlier at the beginning of the preliminary finals.
And so the door closed on a career that spanned more than 40 years of trials, tribulations and triumphs: a career which help shape many a young man and many a top footballer: a career which gave as much if not more back to the sport than the sport perhaps often gave him, and a career which gave the footy die-hards something spectacular to talk over each and every week of the game.
Malthouse is a very relaxed read which will be enjoyed by all Footy fans and anyone who likes to take a peek into what was often a very public life of one of Australia’s sporting legends and inspiring
ne who likes to take a peek into what was often a very public life of one of Australia’s sporting legends and inspiring coaches.

 

Biographies, Non Fiction