Rucci in the Adelaide Advertiser is linking Malthouse to Richmond ....
Mick Malthouse ends coaching era to seek new home by: Michelangelo Rucci
From: The Advertiser
October 02, 2011 11:00PMMICHAEL Malthouse is clear on only one part of his next role in the AFL - it will not be at Collingwood.
But the veteran coach has left open his options - perhaps without a 12-month lay-off - to be part of an emotional homecoming at Richmond.
Malthouse, 58, on Saturday closed his successful era at Collingwood leaving the coaching role to former Magpies captain Nathan Buckley - and he will cast no shadow on Buckley by refusing to be Collingwood's first director of coaching.
Malthouse rejected this role six weeks ago because - regardless of its title - it involved no coaching, particularly on game day.
While his original club, St Kilda, is without a coach as it deals with Ross Lyon's defection to Fremantle, Malthouse has declared he will not coach again - despite being just 50 games short of the VFL-AFL record of 715 games held by Jock McHale.
Richmond, however, is seeking a coaching director who will be involved on match day. In the field for this role is deposed Melbourne coach Dean Bailey, who is also being chased by Port Adelaide for Matthew Primus' new panel.
But more appealing to the Tigers would be to lure Malthouse home to reposition a Victorian club - like the Collingwood inherited by Malthouse in late 1999 - haunted by a long (31 years) premiership drought.
After serving five clubs - St Kilda, Richmond, Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs), West Coast and Collingwood - as a player or coach in 40 years, the question of which stands as home for Malthouse is clearly Richmond.
"Each club has played a significant role in my development," says Malthouse.
"But I guess where you play and you win a premiership makes you feel so important," added Malthouse, a member of Richmond's last premiership team in 1980.
"Coaching is very isolated.
"Where you sweat, where you bleed, where you break your bones and ligaments and God knows whatever else, that is (home). When you wake up in the morning and you have a crook knee, your back aches and your fingers are out of joint, you know where you got it.
"I look in the mirror and the biggest cut across my eye, I know where I got that (Richmond).
"You feel a lot of sweat here (at Collingwood as a coach), but the other place (Richmond) was sweat and blood (as a player)."
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/mick-malthouse-ends-coaching-era-to-seek-new-home/story-e6frecnu-1226156424433