LAST year, the AFL's two oldest coaches, Denis Pagan and Kevin Sheedy, were relieved of their duties. They were both 59 at the time. On Sunday, Richmond sacked its director of football, Greg Miller. He is in his mid-50s. The Tigers say they want somebody who is more contemporary. It doesn't pay to get old. Now, the two oldest coaches in the AFL are Collingwood's Mick Malthouse, who is soon to turn 55, and the Brisbane Lions' Leigh Matthews, who is 56. Both went grey years ago and both are battling to keep their teams in the top eight. Last weekend, their teams lost for the fourth time in the past six rounds. The game is changing quickly and the challenge for these two multi-premiership coaches is to keep up with it.

Both stand for good old-fashioned football values. Their teams hit in hard. Courage to win contested ball is a must. There is no place for flair and lair, the team comes first. But you need a lot more than that in today's football. Geelong and Hawthorn share the ball with rapid-fire handball at a level never seen before. The Cats average almost 200 handballs a game. The Hawks are next-highest with an average of 170. At the bottom end of the handball averages sit Brisbane with 138 and Collingwood with 125.

On Saturday, Essendon beat the highly favoured Collingwood with speed. Bombers coach Matthew Knights said he had looked at the Magpies' recent losses to the Roos, Dogs and Blues and realised that it was quick movement of the ball that killed them. Collingwood's total of 122 handballs was the lowest for the round, Geelong's 241 was the highest.

Geelong is the benchmark team. It has won 35 of its past 37 games. It continually has more than 400 disposals a game, a figure that was once thought to be completely out of reach. But the Cats excel in all areas. They are No. 1 for contested possession and uncontested possession. Under Malthouse, the Pies are ranked two for contested possession, which is no surprise, but 13th for uncontested.

Brisbane sits seventh for contested possession but is ranked 16th for uncontested possession. The older coaches were brought up under a system where you were expected to do it hard all the time. I suspect the younger coaches respect hard but also appreciate the value of smarts, flair and skill.

On Saturday, the younger Knights dictated terms to the older Malthouse. At half-time, Dale Thomas, with 15 disposals, was Collingwood's leading possession-getter. When he started the third quarter, Thomas' opponent went to the Essendon goal square and stayed put. Thomas followed, and for the next 20 minutes, neither went near the ball. It was a victory to Knights, as Thomas had only one touch for the quarter.

Angus Monfries also controlled dangerous Pie defender Heath Shaw. He took Shaw away from the action when it suited. Shaw, with 10 touches, had half his normal impact. This now happens on a regular basis to Shaw. "It's no good being where the ball ain't", so devising strategies to maximise the talents of his creative best has to be a priority.

The Lions have lost their past three games in Melbourne and sit a shaky eighth on the ladder. You know what you will get with the Lions. They will bore in to win hard ball and they will tackle hard. But they use the ball sparingly and they like to go one-on-one all over the field, and 90% of their forward thrusts go to Daniel Bradshaw and Jonathan Brown. In short, they are predictable. On Saturday night, they had a healthy 25 point-lead over Richmond. But you knew the Tigers would rally. To start the final quarter, Tiger coach Terry Wallace cleared out his forward line to leave three guns inside the forward 50. There was Nathan Brown, Matthew Richardson and Joel Bowden. Given space and supply, they would be dangerous. And they were. Between them, they kicked seven of their team's eight goals for the quarter.

I felt that coach Matthews should have dropped a couple of players back behind the ball to make life difficult for the Tiger trio. In that last quarter, Brisbane's disposals fell to 57, which was the lowest quarter tally for any team of the round. It was the time the Lions needed to play keepings-off, to control the ball and deny Richmond use of the leather. They needed to change the speed or tempo with which they had played the previous three quarters because the state of the game called for it. It wasn't to be, and the Lions lost a close one. Both Malthouse and Matthews have been successful coaches and are proud men. But they also need to be realistic and make adjustments if they wish to be relevant in today's game.