FootyGoss :: All the Latest AFL and WAFL Breaking News

Contrition sets in for Woosha

By Mr Dandalooa

It’s been a tough year for Woosha.

The press have been on his back all season.

His team are almost certain wooden-spooners.

And he has been forced time after time to defend his wayward team. But in a reversal of the irreverent John Worsfold defiance, the 41-year-old this week confirmed that he won’t be seeking a contract extension beyond 2011 if the West Coast Eagles’ woeful 2010 form continued into next year.

Finally, some might say, some contrition has set in. Perhaps the reality of the situation most people saw so early on, has given the former star a rude awakening.

Worsfold has admitted that he needs to see marked improvement from the struggling Eagles if he is to stay at the club beyond next season.

Although the dismal season has been marked by injury, the Eagles are not the only team, even Freo with its young-guns have had a spate of injuries and sit in fifth place.

Worsfold guided the Eagles to a premiership in 2006, so he has delivered for the club.

There’s no doubting that whatsoever.

But he is contracted until the end of next year and has been guaranteed by the club’s hierarchy that he will see out his term. He is safe for now.

“Improvement has to be made here,” Worsfold was reported as saying.

“If we don’t improve next year, I’ll definitely be handing over the reins and saying someone needs to come in and start fresh with the group.

“Even if it wasn’t next year, I would be confident that it would be the year after (that we show rapid improvement).

“[I’m] very confident that you’re going to see Scott Selwood and [Nic] Naitanui and some of these young guys lead this club to some great success.”

Recruited from South Fremantle, Worsfold made his debut in Round 4 of the 1987 VFL season against Carlton, which was also the Eagles’ first year in the then Victorian Football League.

His coaching career started in 2000 at Carlton Football Club as an assistant to David Parkin and then to Wayne Brittain in 2001, before applying for the senior coaching roles at both West Coast and Fremantle at the end of the 2001 season.

Eventually he was appointed to the senior coaching role at West Coast, the club he had formerly played for, where he achieved some level of immediate success, taking the club back to the finals in his first season.

After a string of early finals exits in 2002, 2003 and 2004, Woosha finally took the club back to the Grand Final in 2005, where Eagles were narrowly defeated by four points by the Sydney Swans.

In 2006 the club finished on top of the ladder after the home and away series, and followed it up with a win in the Grand Final, again against the Swans, this time the margin being a solitary point.

In doing so Worsfold became only the fourth person in the history of the AFL/VFL to both captain and later coach the same club to an AFL premiership, and the first at the West Coast Eagles. In the 2007 season West Coast finished third on the ladder.

They lost to Port Adelaide in the qualifying final then they got eliminated by Collingwood in the semi final. The 2008 season was not as successful for Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles Football Club.

With the loss of players Chris Judd and Ben Cousins, West Coast went from third to fifteenth. Finishing with four wins and eighteen losses.

In the 2009 season Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles Football Club made an improvement. finishing eleventh on the ladder with eight wins and fourteen losses.

In an era where most coaches have implemented “the flood” defence by having their players zone back, Worsfold has maintained a man-on-man style of game.

While this has led him to much success in the home and away season, finishing 2nd and 1st after the home and away rounds in 2005 and 2006 respectively, the strategy, or rather the inflexibility from this strategy has also led to criticism at times.

Firstly, teams such as the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle have been perceived to exploit West Coast’s macro-positioning. However, the most notable example of this criticism has come after the qualifying final against Sydney in 2006.

The 2009 season has seen Worsfold and his coaching department implement the use of both zone defence and man-on-man strategy depending on the situation.