Tony Jones is the face of Melbourne sports reporting for Channel Nine.

  Have your say on the Malthouse-Buckley team.

Had he not decided on a career in television or a presidential role at Australia's most famous sporting club (Collingwood), Eddie McGuire might have been snapped up by the United Nations to try to settle the differences in the Middle East.

Yet again, he's proven himself as the master deal maker.

Who else could bring together Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley to form, arguably, the AFL's ultimate dream-team?

As other clubs were trying to satisfy Buckley's growing hunger for a senior coaching role, the Magpies were offering him what amounted to entree. An assistant coach's role.

Incredibly, Buckley agreed.

So, here's the deal.

Collingwood has signed both Malthouse and Buckley to five year agreements, with Malthouse handing over the senior coaching job at the end of 2011 and then spending the next three years in the newly created role of Director of Coaching.

Now that all sounds great in theory, but how will it work in reality?

Malthouse himself says there'll be sceptics who don't think the partnership is workable and, in truth, it'll only take a lean patch by Collingwood over the next couple of years for the media and members to be calling for a change of power immediately.

McGuire has pre-empted such talk with a simple 'mick malthouse is the senior coach for the next two years'.

By the time that two year period expires, Malthouse will have chalked up 40 years as both a player and coach at league level.

It's an extrodinary effort in modern sport and by the time his body clock ticks over to 60 years of age, this enigma of a man will be wanting to wind down.

Even more extraodinary is the fact that Malthouse has managed to squeeze another couple of years out of a club who knows only too well he hasn't delivered it a premiership in that decade.

The dream, of course, would be to hand the baton to Buckley after taking the Magpies to a flag or two before his time is up.

Then again, Collingwood is big on dreams and not all of them come true.

For McGuire though this is one which has.

Malthouse and Buckley. A dream-team in anyone's language.

Now Ed, what are you going to do about the Middle East?

Has Collingwood secured the AFL's dream team?
Can the partnership work?
Will Malthouse see out his remaining years as senior coach?