MICK MALTHOUSE will "officially sign off" to coach AFL side Carlton for the next three years. It is understood that "he will honor his media contracts" with Channel Seven and radio 3AW through the finals and won't officially start with the Blues until Nov. 1 when the players return from their post-season holiday. His long-time friend ROBERT WILEY will join the Blues as a development coach. In more coaching news, it is believed Port Adelaide will announce a new coach this week, with BRETT RATTEN "the hot favorite to be given the job" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 9/11). ... Chinese fans hoping to see cyclist ALBERTO CONTADOR race in the Tour of Beijing are in for a "major disappointment" as the Spaniard is unlikely to travel halfway around the world for a "pointless" event (REUTERS, 9/10). ... Former Brasileiro club Santos President MILTON TEIXEIRA died at the age of 81. Teixeira was the president of the club from '84-86 (FOLHA DE S. PAULO, 9/10). ... Pakistan Cricket Board Chair ZAKA ASHRAF said that SAEED AJMAL will "receive a special award" from the organization after the spin bowler was left off the shortlist for the International Cricket Council's Player of the Year (REUTERS, 9/10). ... Australian rules footballer JOHN MCCARTHY fell to a "sudden death" in Las Vegas Monday. McCarthy had flown out of Australia at the weekend after the club's best and fairest, one of a group of 11 Port Adelaide players "unwinding after the season in Vegas." McCarthy "was not with his teammates" when he fell from the Flamingo hotel and died. Details of the 22-year-old's death remain thin, with certainty only that "he was found in the hotel driveway after a fall" (THE AGE, 9/11).
