FOR EVERY theory on coaches there is at least one exception. Take, for example, the idea that the best equipped to handle the job in the modern era are younger men, better able to relate to the kids of today. So what about that 54-year old, white-haired dinosaur, Mick Malthouse?

It hasn't always been this way, of course. When Allan Jeans provided the coaching template in the late 1980s, it seemed that perhaps the knowledge and mellowing brought by the years might best equip a coach to lead a group of diverse, young males.

Perhaps the most notable exception to the conventional wisdom of that time was a rising young firebrand at Footscray named Mick Malthouse.

And what of the Barassi-principle? Intense types with short fuses are supposed to have a limited shelf life. Five years should see them out. It sounds logical, but still going strong into his ninth year at Collingwood, following a 10-year reign at West Coast, is - yes, that man again - iron-willed Mick Malthouse.

Tomorrow, this exception to the rules will walk - in his ever-brisk, businesslike way - deeper into football history. Malthouse will coach his 575th game and thus step alongside "Yabby" Jeans, his own first senior coach, into equal third-placing on the all-time list: the list of football's greatest survivors.

Enduring coaches are surely that. They are the least secure and most isolated of all football figures. That's an area where it's fair to say Mick is one of the crowd. Even when West Coast was riding high under him in the early 1990s, he expressed insecurity about the job. His wife, he said, called him a pessimist; he knew he was simply a realist.

Another 15 years on, his 575th game will leave him behind only Kevin Sheedy and Jock McHale. You almost have to look twice to confirm the truth and magnitude of the statistic. Malthouse doesn't wear an old grey suit and hat like Jock; neither has his longevity, spread as it has been across three clubs, created the awe of Sheedy. Mick has almost crept up on us.

It's not that he wasn't quick to make his mark. Having impressed Footscray with the fierceness of his ambition, he was a senior coach at 30. The long-impoverished Bulldogs were cajoled into a preliminary final in only his second year; it had been almost a quarter of a century since they had experienced such dizzy heights. This was, though, the coaching school of hard knocks and it had a shelf-life. Six years at the erstwhile Western Oval was as long as anyone had lasted there since the iconic EJ Whitten. It would test any man to his limits.

A more advantageous posting was always likely and it came from the still-fledgling Eagles. The nouveau riche of the West wanted someone to teach a talented group to play Victorian football. Malthouse was their man.

Under his tutelage, West Coast became the archetypal modern team, physically ahead of its time and built on a rigid defensive structure that would set the trend for a decade. Malthouse coached the club through the 1990s, won two premierships, and not once did the Eagles miss the finals. A dynasty had been forged.

Notwithstanding such an era, perhaps the best was yet to come. Collingwood called in a time of dire need. Inheriting a wooden spoon outfit, Malthouse took the Magpies to within two kicks of a flag in three years. It was an astonishing achievement. More than six years later, the grail dangles tantalisingly within reach but remains elusive.

While much has stayed the same, some things have changed. Now, Malthouse coaches one of football's most watchable teams. Its game-breakers play flamboyant, daring but disciplined football. Those who once derided the coach as innately defensive - from the old back-pocket school - must reconsider.

It is likely he has developed in other ways, too, and his coaching may have reached a higher level as a result. Whereas Malthouse has had, over the journey, detractors who complained of an autocratic, self-absorbed nature, there is now a view that a new maturity has been found.

But is he a great? That's a topic for a spirited debate. He has stood the test of three clubs of different culture and circumstance and he has stood the test of time, but to be grouped among the legendary coaches he must measure up to the most basic test of all: that of premierships won.

In earlier times, McHale collected eight, Norm Smith six, "Checker" Hughes and Jack Worrall five apiece, and Dick Reynolds four. More recently, Hafey, Barassi, Jeans, Parkin, Sheedy and Matthews have also won four. At this time in history, four is the yardstick, although the combination of a larger competition, draft, and salary cap is making them harder to win.

Malthouse has two. They were won in a three-year window within a 25-year career and it's not as though he has coached under conditions of particular disadvantage. For the past 14 years he has been at the helm of the two most powerful clubs in the game without landing a title.

It could be argued that the flags at West Coast, where fortnightly trans-continental travel imposed huge demands, were worth double. It could be said that raising Collingwood from near-death is a higher achievement than that of some whose flags were acquired with talented teams on cruise control. In the end, though, Mick will be judged by the same statistical measure as his peers.

Malthouse is at history's crossroad. He is young enough to still plan for premierships, old enough to have asked himself how long such an obsessive quest can continue. He is by any measure exceptional, but by history's only hard and fast measure, not yet quite great.

THE MALTHOUSE YEARS

Footscray:  1984-89, 135 games (67 wins, 66 losses, 2 draws) at 49.2%, best finish 3rd in 1985.

West Coast: 1990-99, 243 games (156 wins, 85 losses, 2 draws) at 65.8%, best finish 1st - 2 premierships in 1992, '94.

Collingwood: 2000-07, 186 games (92 wins, 94 losses) at 48.8%, best finish 2nd in 2001, '02.

TOTAL: 1984-2007, 564 (315 wins, 245 losses, 4 draws) at 56%.

MOST GAMES COACHED

Jock McHale: Collingwood, 714 games, 8 flags.

Kevin Sheedy: Essendon, 635 games, 4 flags.

Allan Jeans: St Kilda, Hawthorn, Richmond, 575 games, 4 flags.

Mick Malthouse: Footscray, West Coast, Collingwood, 574 games, 2 flags.

Tom Hafey: Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong, Sydney, 522 games, 4 flags.

David Parkin: Hawthorn, Carlton, Fitzroy, 518 games, 4 flags.

Ron Barassi: Carlton, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Sydney, 514 games, 4 flags.

Norm Smith: Fitzroy, Melbourne, South Melbourne, 449 games, 6 flags.

Leigh Matthews: Collingwood, Brisbane Lions, 449 games, 4 flags.

Dick Reynolds: Essendon, 415 games, 4 flags.