IT WAS enough to bring a 28-season coach to tears. Or was it?

At the end of Friday night’s first preliminary final - after Collingwood had somehow clawed back a 17-point three quarter-time deficit to defeat Hawthorn by three points - when we looked up at the MCG’s giant scoreboard we could have sworn we saw Mick Malthouse shed a tear.

The Collingwood coach would have been entitled to. Hawthorn had dominated general play for the first three quarters and looked set to book a Grand Final berth as the teams went into their final huddles. Yes, the Hawks had not translated their dominance into a match-winning lead, but the Magpies looked headed for defeat by a thousand Hawthorn precision kicks and fast breaks.

So when Malthouse’s team was able to find something, to gain the ascendancy in the midfield, to pile on 5.2 when it had kicked 5.6 in the first three quarters, and to hit back when Lance Franklin had regained the lead for the Hawks with a freakish goal late in the game, Malthouse was entitled to get a little misty-eyed.

Especially when a loss would have brought an end to his 12-year reign at Collingwood and, possibly, to a coaching career that started back at the Whitten Oval in 1984 and included 10 highly successful seasons at West Coast before Eddie McGuire lured him to the Magpies.

So it was no surprise that when Malthouse walked into the MCG media room to conduct his post-match conference he joked: “Don’t make me cry.”

But it turns out our eyes must have been playing tricks on us.

Because when asked about his post-match tears, Malthouse laughed but was adamant when he said: “I didn’t shed a tear - almost. Oh, god.”

Asked about whether the game was one of the most emotional of his career, Malthouse admitted the fact his career could have ended with a loss had played on his mind.

“I just think it (his coaching career) is coming to a finish. I’ve never been confronted with this scenario before,” he said.

“All of a sudden it’s going to finish. You reflect too often, perhaps. Perhaps you start to project too far in front to see what it’s going to be like without football, without that cut and thrust of being at the mine pit.

“It’s something that’s been part of me for 40 years and will be very difficult to stop - ‘There it is, bing, it’s finished’.

“You can’t help but get emotional. If it went the other way, it was (my) last game.”

Malthouse said the game itself had been a “blur” and he bore the signs of having ridden an emotional roller-coaster.

He looked as drained as any player that had trudged off the field and played with his glasses as he answered questions, often looking at the ground. He was in an expansive mood, but unlike the joyous scenes in the Collingwood rooms where players, family and friends mingled freely, his primary emotion seemed to be relief.

He praised his team, and especially his leadership group, for conjuring their great escape, on a night they “just weren’t on” but had “hung in there”.

He conceded his team had been lucky and the Hawks unlucky. That was the way of any game decided by a goal or less, Malthouse said.

He also praised the Hawks for how hard they’d made it for his team to score and Franklin for kicking that late goal that “no other player on the planet would have kicked”. 

He was also able to look forward to next week’s Grand Final. Although confident Ben Reid and Darren Jolly, who both finished Friday night’s game injured, would play next Saturday, Malthouse said if they didn’t it would merely present a problem he had managed all season.

“We’re not immune to going without our best team,” Malthouse said of the injuries and suspensions that have hit key Magpie players like Dane Swan, Jolly, Heath Shaw, Ben Reid, Nick Maxwell and Chris Dawes this season.

But, above all, Malthouse was “absolutely delighted” he’d get to coach for at least one more week.

But he did not want all the attention to be on him, deferring credit to his players.

“I only go because they go. They’re taking us for a big ride”, he said.

That’s true. But Malthouse has taken us on a 28-year coaching ride.

When he hands the Magpies coaching reins to Nathan Buckley after next Saturday’s premiership decider, Collingwood fans will have to get used to life without the man, who with president McGuire, has effectively been Collingwood for the past 12 years.

But until then he can savour one last battle. It would have been a cruel end if he’d been denied that chance. His ride deserved to end on the game’s biggest stage.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.