Malthouse: Pies require patience

[Nick]

The following article appeared in The Age yesterday.

Malthouse: Pies require patience
By ALAN SHIELL

Patience will be the recurring theme at Collingwood this year.

"I've got to be patient," said new Magpie coach Mick Malthouse, an impatient Eagle coach for most of the past 10 years.

Malthouse talked about Collingwood's essential rebuilding program immediately after the Pies' nine-point loss to Port Adelaide - 13.12 to 12.9 - in an Ansett Cup match at Football Park on Saturday night.

"There was a lot to like about that game and there are a lot of areas where we can improve," he said. "I think the most important thing is we know we can improve."

Asked about a timetable, Malthouse said: "I know where we are and I know where we want to be. The gap in between is the grey area and I couldn't put a time on it. The club mightn't have enough patience for my timing there, so I'm not going to start putting down times."

Collingwood's 24 against Port included four 18-year-olds - Damien Adkins, Leon Davis, Ben Johnson and Rhyce Shaw - and three 19-year-olds - Dale Baynes, Nick Davis and Heath Scotland.

"By picking (most of) them again (after the 88-point loss to Carlton on New Year's Eve), they believed we had faith in them," Malthouse said. "That's going to be our method this year.

"I can't say categorically they're going to play every game, but we're going to encourage the younger players to play because, quite frankly, we've elected that course for the Collingwood Football Club - to look at our younger players.

"Damian Monkhorst has gone as a 30-year-old ruckman and we've introduced Brad Smith, who's 22. And we left Steven McKee, who's 21, back (in Melbourne) to play a full game.

"We elected to bring up Davis, Shaw, Adkins and Johnson and play them together so they get used to it because I feel, down the track, the best form of us progressing over the next five or six seasons - and that's a long time - is to have these young players play together for a couple of years to get used to one another.

"They'll turn into the 22 and 23-year-olds who'll be very hard to stop. You've got to set a solid foundation first-up and I'm not going to be swayed from that. We will continue to keep these young players at the forefront."

Asked if he was keen to continue to play Nathan Buckley across half-forward, where the captain was clearly best afield against Port and kicked three of Collingwood's 12goals, Malthouse said: "No, I'm going to mix that around as often as is needed.

"Given that we lost the other one (to Carlton) badly - and we understand where we are, we're not going to make the (cup) finals - it was important to put some responsibility on to players who will be going through the corridor, through the middle.

"If Nathan's in there, they tend to leave it up to Nathan. Tonight, we had blokes like Adkins, who, in his first game - and this is probably his third season at the club - was prominent when he came on, (Rupert) Betheras had 20-odd possessions, Davis had 15, (Glenn) Freeborn had a few, (Paul) Licuria, (Shane) O'Bree had 20-odd, (Mark) Orchard, we'll bring Shaw up at some stage and (Heath) Scotland played very well yesterday (in Melbourne) ... so there are a few we want to run through there without having to leave it all to one player."

When Port coach Mark Williams was asked where, as an opposing coach, he would like to see Buckley play - up forward or on the ball - he said: "On the bench."

Williams said he was "pretty happy with our first practice game", but it was "a good reality check for some guys coming into their second year of league footy ... and (Warren) Tredrea and (Peter) Burgoyne have got some work to do".

"I thought (Brett) Montgomery and (Mathew) Bishop showed enough to think we're going to have a long, successful partnership with those guys," he said.

Port's next cup match is against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval on Saturday night. Collingwood will play Fremantle at Waverley Park the following Saturday night.