Despite the Australians comprehensively beating a young Cork outfit by 93 points in a practice hit-out on Wednesday night, Malthouse says his charges must be cleaner with the unfamiliar ball in the upcoming first Test.
"[The Irish] are clearly masters of that ball and we weren't," he said.
"Even though it looked it on the scoreboard, we weren't masters of the ball and a lot of work can be done there.
"I would like a solid month, and it's impossible and would never happen and this is only a fantasy wish, but I'd love a month where you have the squad of 30 and you train up with that ball against quality opposition through that month."
Malthouse also would have preferred Wednesday night's match to have been played in greasy conditions rather than the clear, chilly weather the Cork evening presented.
He said his players also needed to work on their kicking for goal, which was blighted at times by a tendency to kick on an angle.
The recent Collingwood premiership coach, who is at the helm of the national side for the second straight series, says he has called on assistant coaches Matthew Lappin and Glen Jakovich for their personal experience with the game.
"Frankly, I love [the series] because they're all young blokes that want to play, they have the same background as anyone else," he said.
"It's a great challenge. I really do believe this is a job where the discipline factor is important and we make that a very strong point.
"As far as the actual coaching goes, I think it's a real joint effort."
The competition was briefly suspended after the 2006 series was marred by violence but Malthouse said he was keen to ensure "great relations" were upheld between the competing countries.
He said he would again emphasise to his players the importance of maintaining a competitive spirit against Ireland while playing the match with great sportsmanship.
The Australians experimented with their players and the interchange cap during Wednesday's game with the coaching staff keen to see who was flexible with alternative roles.
"We wanted to play players all over the place in case someone bobbed up and we go, 'Oops, this game suits him playing more forward than back'," Malthouse said.
"As it turned out there were a few blokes who, surprisingly, being good backs were good forwards, and blokes that play mid were surprisingly very good deep forwards.
"We've learned from that, and the boys enjoyed it because they were able to be thrown around and come up with different positions for themselves."
The first Test will be held in Limerick on Saturday night local time with the second to follow a week later in Dublin.
Get behind the 2010 International Rules Series with Jennifer Witham’s complete coverage from Limerick and Dublin. Join the conversation on Twitter: use #IR2010 in your tweets.
