COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse announced categorically on Sunday that Saturday's match will be his last as a coach — not just of Collingwood, but of any other side.

To a direct question on Seven's Game Day, as to whether he thought Saturday would be his last game as coach he said simply: "Yes I do".

Pressed on the matter, with the one word follow-up question: "Forever?" he said: "Yep", putting a full stop to a continuous 40-year relationship with the game as a player and coach.

Malthouse is contracted to continue with Collingwood for another three years in a yet to be determined role as director of coaching with assistant Nathan Buckley to assume the senior role next week.

For all that, Malthouse was in a positive — yet reflective and emotional — mood during the far-reaching interview. He said that a lot had happened in his life over the five years, including the loss of his parents Ray and Marie (his father died in 2007, and his mother two years later), and the controversial decision that will lead to the end of his time as Collingwood's senior coach at the end of October, matters that overflowed at the end of Friday's preliminary final, when Malthouse was seen in tears in the coach's box after Collingwood's dramatic three-point win over Hawthorn.

"That three years we're talking about here, is starting to reach a peak. I know I'm going to reach the top of the mountain, and there's going to be no tomorrow in terms of that 40 years that I've been involved," Malthouse said.

"It's just going to stop. Now not many people have had that."

Malthouse said his impending "plight" would not be on his agenda, or the club's, during Grand Final week.

"It certainly won't be mentioned. The individual stuff this week will be about [Darren] Jolly, about [Ben] Reid, about [Nick] Maxwell, about the team — they are the boys who've taken big shots over the weekend.  Any individual stuff will be about the playing group, and we'll condense that and bring it back to the team anyway, which no doubt Geelong will do," he said.

"[You] cannot afford for one person's plight to interfere with the team. And my boys understand that; the club knows that, and we'll be doing everything for the team.

"How they feel for me individually, and how I feel for them individually will be hidden, it will be well camouflaged. It won't be false and won't be put away and made out for what it should be and what it can be and what it possibly will be.

"It'll be just getting to us picking the best side, training up, freshening up, and being ready for a very good football side to encounter. And we've just played a great football side, so we're very humbled in our winning against a very, very good football side (Hawthorn), and we come forward and now play one of the great sides (Geelong) that's been in existence for five or six years."

Asked whether he could look ahead to next Sunday morning, and to examine his feelings at the end of his career, he said: "How am I going to feel on Sunday morning? Well, hopefully victorious, and if not, knowing we've given it our best shot."

Collingwood fans can take some support from the fact that Malthouse was confident that Jolly (groin) and Reid (groin and hamstring) would be likely starters against Geelong: "As of yesterday, both were pretty comfortable, and the medical staff seem to think both should play," Malthouse said.