Mick Malthouse, an Australian Football League champion, is appearing in court to face the suspects who allegedly stabbed him in an attempted robbery.
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Malthouse, a two-time All-Australian Coach, appeared in a Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday. He provided testimony regarding an alleged incident at his East Melbourne unit back in September 2025.
According to The Nightly, Malthouse said that he had been drifting in and out of sleep on Sept. 4, 2025, when he heard a pinging sound outside his residence. He investigated while brandishing an exercise bar, and he reportedly discovered three men outside his door with a crowbar.
The incident allegedly escalated. Malthouse said that he hit one of the alleged home intruders with the exercise bar and that he took a blow from the crowbar, which left a bruise. He then said that he chased them down into the garage, where they remained trapped.
Malthouse said that the men told them they had the wrong house and that someone owed them some money.
"They were like a bunch of cockatoos," the Hall of Fame coach said, per The Nightly. "Once one said it, the others said it."
He ultimately opened the door and allowed them to leave. Although he swung the exercise bar at them. He said that one of the men then lunged and stabbed him in the sternum with a screwdriver, causing him to bleed.
He said that the third man attempted to hit him with the crowbar but that he caught it and then hit the man with his exercise bar.
This hearing will continue on Tuesday as defense lawyer John Desmond aims to push back against Malthouse's testimony, a strategy that he began implementing when he pointed to alleged discrepancies in the evidence. Desmond also accused the former coach of trapping the alleged home invaders by delaying opening his garage door.
Malthouse played in 174 VFL games. He suited up for both St Kilda and Richmond, and he won the premiership (championship) with Richmond.
He then began working as a coach, and he enjoyed a record-breaking 718-game tenure. He led Western Bulldogs, West Coast, Collingwood, and Carlton. He won three premierships (1992, 1994, 2010) as a coach.
