Malthouse

An intimate, inspirational biography about Australian Football's greatest coach of the modern era, written by his daughter.

Mick Malthouse, a tenacious, hard-hitting defender in Australian Football racked up 174 senior games for St Kilda and Richmond including a Grand Final victory with the Tigers in 1980 and eight finals appearances in all.

But it was as a coach of genius that Malthouse fired the imagination of the football world. After cutting his teeth at Footscray, twice he took teams from the bottom of the ladder to Premiership glory - first West Coast, then Collingwood. A staggering eight grand final appearances and fifty finals in all mark an extraordinary record.

Malthouse never made excuses for himself and he was equally uncompromising with his players. Some fell by the wayside but most prospered and it was as a team builder and canny tactician that he shone. He soon became a colourful figure in the media, playing that game to his club's advantage, but for all his antics he remained a devoted family man and loyal mate to a legion of friends.

Malthouse: a football life is a thrilling roller-coaster ride through the hurly-burly of elite sport. It is also a sensitive and intimate portrait of the man behind the public figure: the compassionate man; the practical joker; the philosopher and author; the child-like enthusiast; the lover of humanity; and the mentor who turns boys into men.

About the Author

Christi Malthouse grew up in a famous household, as the eldest daughter of AFL great, Mick Malthouse. She combined her studies and newspaper work with a start in television journalism. After three years at Channel Seven, she was offered a job in Perth's Network Ten newsroom as a full-time sport's journalist. In 2002 Christi joined the Network Ten AFL broadcast team as a boundary rider. In addition to these roles, Christi hosted and produced a children's weekly football show, Beyond the Boundary, and presented on Ten's 9am. Christi departed Ten in 2010 and worked with Channel Nine's Weekend TODAY show for a year. Christi married Dean Casamento in 2007 and together they have two children.