John Worsfold - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

It is possible, as Worsfold admits, that he may not want to coach at the highest level. He may not even have the right blend of ambition and insanity for the job, but his profile, successful history and hard-man reputation makes him such an obvious candidate for a job that other clubs will take a close look at him. Worsfold's decision to take on an assistant coaching job at Carlton greatly enhances his marketability as a senior coach. By the season's end, he will have more experience than Tim Watson had, but with a similar brand name. He will have many of the perceived qualifications of a senior coach: premierships as a player, a tough guy with peer respect, brains and, crucially, he will have played under and assisted two big-name coaches in Mick Malthouse and David Parkin. Coaching is like kung fu: it helps to have earned your black belt under a master.

For the first year after the end of his playing career, Worsfold worked as a commentator with Channel 7. At the end of 1999, Worsfold confirmed that he was interested in coaching, and that he was willing to move away from Perth in order to do so. He was subsequently offered full-time assistant coaching positions at both West Coast and Fremantle, and was at one stage considered a possible candidate to coach Geelong following Gary Ayres' decision to leave the club to coach Adelaide. Worsfold also interviewed for the vacant senior coaching position at Hawthorn, along with Chris Connolly, Mark Harvey, and Peter Schwab, but was turned down in favour of Schwab. Worsfold finally signed a three-year contract to serve as an assistant coach at Carlton. He had also been in contention for the position of senior coach at Richmond, but declined to be interviewed after accepting the role at Carlton. Worsfold's appointment was controversial; Carlton's president John Elliott officially confirmed Worsfold had been engaged as assistant coach on The Footy Show, two days before the club was due to play in a preliminary final. Carlton's senior coach David Parkin suggested the appointment had come "out of the blue", and it was later reported that he had threatened to quit as a result of the club's lack of consultation.

As part of a restructure of Carlton's coaching panel, Parkin moved to more of an overseeing role, with his senior assistant coach, Wayne Brittain, given a greater role. Under this structure, Worsfold was given responsibility for coaching the defence, including formulating the club's kick-in strategy. At the end of the 2000 season, with Carlton having lost to Essendon in a preliminary final, Parkin retired as coach, and was replaced by Brittain. Having maintained his role as a defensive coach under Brittain, Worsfold was again considered a strong candidate for several other clubs' vacant senior coaching positions during (and at the conclusion of) the 2001 season. After Damian Drum's sacking as coach of Fremantle midway through the season, Worsfold was approached to interview for the position, but refused, stating a desire to wait until the end of the season. He also stated in his interest in the position at St Kilda, which was eventually filled by Grant Thomas, who had been serving as caretaker coach. After Carlton's season ended with a semi-final loss to Richmond, Worsfold interviewed with both Fremantle and his old playing club, West Coast, who had sacked Ken Judge. He was considered likely to take up the position at Fremantle, with Neil Craig considered a favourite to coach West Coast, but eventually leveraged his status at Fremantle into securing the West Coast position.

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, Worsfold finally took the club back to the Grand Final in 2005, where the 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 and the lowest percentage in the club’s history. 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.

The 2010 season brought in another low point of Worsfold’s coaching career with the West Coast Eagles completing a spectacular fall from grace and receiving the wooden spoon, winning just four games; two against Essendon, one against 2008 premiers Hawthorn and against Melbourne. Injuries and poor form had plagued the Eagles’ 2010 season, though their overall record was not as bad as in 2008. Worsfold became the fourth man after Reg Hickey, Charlie Sutton and Tony Jewell to coach the same club to both a premiership and a wooden spoon.

Twelve months later however, the Eagles were back in the finals, finishing 4th at the end of the home and away season and losing a preliminary final against eventual premiers Geelong. After the club's top-four finish, Worsfold signed a two-year extension to his contract in October 2011. At the conclusion of round nine of the 2012 season, Worsfold passed Mick Malthouse’s record for the most games coached at West Coast.