On Sunday, Malthouse will coach his 576th senior game, moving past mentor Allan Jeans into third place on the all-time list of most games coached in VFL/AFL history.
Malthouse will also become just the fourth person to participate in 750 VFL/AFL games as player and coach, comprising 53 games as a player for St Kilda, 121 games as a premiership player for Richmond, 135 games as a coach for Footscray, 243 games as a premiership coach for West Coast and 197 games as a coach for Collingwood.
But the 54-year-old said it wasn't a matter of age, but of desire.
"I don't think there's an age limit on your progress – some people at 60 are old, some people at 60 aren't," Malthouse said.
I've promised Ed (Collingwood president Eddie McGuire) and I'll back this up here, contract or no contract – and I am contracted until the end of 2009 – if I don't believe for one moment that I can give of what I know that you need to be a senior coach, then I'm not going to be a senior coach.
"I don't get any joy out of make-believe.
"I'll be quite honest with you – there's a lot of things in football I don't like, there's a lot of things in [this job] that if it went from nought to 100, there's probably 45 things that really … like a lot of people who've been in their jobs for a long time, there's things that you just don't enjoy.
"But as long as I enjoy the competition, as long as I can get up and say that I am there because I want to win this game, and therefore if I want to win it badly enough – and I can relay that onto my player group, who have also got the taste and the hunger for success – then I know I won't let Collingwood down.
"But the moment that diminishes, I'll be saying to Ed – regardless of what stage of the year it is, or what year it is – 'Ed, you need someone else'."
