> Watch Mick Malthouse address the media after the winMICK Malthouse has lauded Nick Maxwell for his courage and says the Collingwood captain is leading his team as well as anyone he has seen in his time coaching.
Maxwell was among the Magpies’ best in their convincing 54-point win over Carlton at the MCG on Friday night, a win that further consolidated Malthouse’s side in the AFL’s top four.
But after the match the coach revealed his skipper, who had earlier displayed a couple of trademarks acts to deprive the Blues scoring opportunities on a night when goals were at a premium, had played hurt.
> Watch Leon Davis speak to CTV in the rooms after the win“Nick was very, very brave to be out there tonight,” Malthouse said in his post-match press conference.
“I can assure you, without telling you what injury he has, he was terrific.”
The veteran coach refused to divulge the exact nature of the injury, and also declared Maxwell was fine to continue playing otherwise he “wouldn’t be out there”.
And one suspects Malthouse thinks Maxwell’s presence could be crucial in determining just how far his team could progress this season – given how highly he spoke of his leader.
“I think one of those sayings is that when you get [given] leadership, don’t change, well, I don’t think that’s necessarily right,” he said.
“I think you’ve got to do a lot of things different when you become the main player, in this case a club captain.
“And he [Maxwell] took a lot of those things with him that he did previously and joined on the things that he needed to do to become a captain,” Malthouse said.
“So he’s fulfilling a lot of those requirements, he’s leading as well as I’ve seen anyone lead a football side.
“He mightn’t have the charisma or the ball-getting power that a few of the captains have had, but he’s certainly as respected as anyone I’ve seen in the short time which is terrific.”
One suspected the Magpies coach felt as relieved as much as he did pleased with the four points after his team had kicked clear in the final term to win 14.10 (94) to 4.16 (40).
> Watch the team sing the song after the winAll eyes were on the Pies following last week’s disappointing loss to Hawthorn, and Malthouse was proud of the way his young side responded.
“We were taken to the cleaners last week,” he said.
“You know, we’re still a developing side in many respects … [coming off a] six-day break, I guess it was better to get back on the horse as quick as we could.
“We did a lot of things right. We did a lot of things wrong but we did the majority of things right, which we needed to do.”
