I recommend watching his press conference just for the answer about the GC chairman's comments on McKenna.
??
Hopefully he only coaches until his contract runs out, then we can go for someone else. I couldn't care less if we lose every game this season by over 100 points, it's his team selection that is just bizarre.
In what way?
The one I’m confused about is playing someone like polkinghorne. I assume it’s to “protect the kids” but how many times do you see him in the center square? How is he protecting them?
I recommend watching his press conference just for the answer about the GC chairman’s comments on McKenna.
Team hasn't thrown in the towel once despite being undermanned.That’s enough of a positive sign for me.
That’s it.
Heart and spirit is there.
Next yr the firepower returns.
It’s all gonna be ok
Hopefully I get banned soonLol
Pls don’t quote the troll.
Gee he got some shithouse questions from the media in his press conference, I would have just walked out if I was him.
Just like players, there are coaches that come in and make an immediate impact (see FC) and there are some that take longer to implement change. Woosha gets a free pass this year and as mentioned above, next year will be "had to integrate older players back in" excuses etc etc. By 2018 we should either see development or stagnation and actually make a decision then. Knowing our board, he will be given a 5 year extension next year that we will need to pay it out once they realise it isn't working still.How many retired coaches who come back for a second stint have actually been successful in the modern era? Glad we had a very senior coach in charge during this period but I don’t see Woosha being the long term solution for our club.
Matthews. Malthouse at Collingwood. Eade at the Doggies. Arguably Sheedy at GWS. Roos at Melbourne isn’t a failure.
Matthews - yep.
Malthouse Pies - Yep, Blues - Nup
Eade - nup
Sheedy - nup
Roos - nup (they are still the same inconsistent team they have been for 10 years)Premiership coaches since 2000 (modern era):
New/Fresh/First flag/One team coaches - 8 ( Clarkson, Longmire, Thompson, Scott, Roos, Williams, Sheedy,Worsfold)
Established coaches at new clubs: 2 (Malthouse, Matthews)So statistics strongly suggest you are better trying to go for a new coach with fresh ideas than bring in an established coach to replicate past success if you want a flag. By the same token the statistics on first time coaches who fail are huge too. So Woosha was the right choice for a club trying to create stability but maybe the right coach to take us to a flag ultimately. We won’t know for 2 more years whether the plan is working or not.
So we have 1 of only 10 coaches to have success in the modern era. Pretty good stats.
Hopefully he only coaches until his contract runs out, then we can go for someone else. I couldn't care less if we lose every game this season by over 100 points, it's his team selection that is just bizarre.
Lol
Team hasn't thrown in the towel once despite being undermanned.That’s enough of a positive sign for me.
Sydney game.
It’s a great achievement to have us not getting flogged. Our greatest fear was that our young recruits would end up psychologically damaged from weeks of getting hammered. It turns out that we have been much more competitive than expected by both us and opposition supporters. I’ve lost count of the number of friends and acquaintances who have remarked, “Bombers are doing alright eh?” despite our poor win/loss ratio. Believe it or not there are actually people out there that sympathise and understand our predicament.
Right now I’d rather be a fan walking out of the game with a big smile on my face having seen a team produce a very honourable loss than be a fan of a team that has won 8 straight with a look of dread on their face having just been confronted by the fact that they’re not actually that good (and probably won’t be for a very long time). I love that we did that to Norf and our coach has a lot to do with it.
Mostly, somewhere in a footy crowd, you hear dark mutterings, some supporter exploding about particular players and what he hates about them. There was none of that from the Essendon supporters I sat among.
Yeah that’s only because Stanton wasn’t out there.
Thanks Darli.
It’s a really nice read.
Sounds dumb I know, however, made feel like a new parent, sorta like when your baby starts trying to walk without hanging on to anything but you have no expectation. Then one day it happens.
Our baby (the team) took some steps without hanging on. Oh and were’nt we all so so proud.
So nice, I read it twice.
(Like I had a choice!!)
So nice, I read it twice.(Like I had a choice!!)
Thanks BSD… I am so crap at posting stuff on my phone… Fixed I think 
This is what I would have said had I been able to write like Martin Flanagan…
The joy of the patched-up Bombers
May 20, 2016 - 12:39PM
By MARTIN FLANAGAN
Billy Jennings says following the Bombers this year is surreal. He has a name for the experience - Zen footy. “You go to games with no expectations.”
Billy has three seats at Etihad for Essendon home games that, in my view, are the best seats in the house: on the fence, right forward pocket. Last Saturday morning, he rang and offered me one for the match between the Bombers and ladder leaders North Melbourne.
Essendon didn’t have a goal by half-time. The word ran through the crowd that it was the Bombers’ lowest half-time score since 1959. Later, that was backdated to 1915. But, even at that low point, the Essendon supporters were still cheerful. Mostly, somewhere in a footy crowd, you hear dark mutterings, some supporter exploding about particular players and what he hates about them. There was none of that from the Essendon supporters I sat among.
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Instead, I heard humour. When Orazio Fantasia scored Essendon’s first goal in the third minute of the third quarter, a big male voice behind us boomed: “Watch out Kangas! We’re coming!” When Mason Redman kicked their second about five minutes later, he cried: “Hate to lose it from here Kangas!” And when Joey Daniher slotted another in the 27th minute, he was back on air: “Look out, North. Stranger things have happened!”
The Essendon fans were like people seeing the game for the first time. The man they call “Walla”, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, caused roars of delight with his exuberant play. “Walla” asked to be called “Walla” (short for wallaby), because it’s the name by which he is known back in the Tiwi Islands and was given to him by his father.
Walla is short, powerful and has an exotic head of dreadlocks. The story is that Walla asked coach John “Woosher” Worsfold how he could improve as a footballer. Woosher replied, “Be yourself and take the game on.” Walla took him at his word.
Kevin Sheedy once told me that Tiwi football is the purest form of the game. Walla plays like a Tiwi. He’s got both zip and zap. He’s extremely quick but he can also intersect strongly with play. There was a thunder clap of joy from the Essendon faithful when Walla initiated the play of the day, zooming out of the Bombers’ defence, three times giving the ball and getting it back, leaving in his wake a procession of dazed North Melbourne faces.
“Woosher” Worsfold has long been one of the enigmas of the game, as indicated by his nickname the Smiling Assassin. Off the ground, by all accounts, a lovely bloke. On the ground, in his playing days, he’d knock your head off. He was as tough as they came in an era when there were some seriously tough players about – e.g. Dermott Brereton. Dermott and Woosher met like projectiles released from either side of the continent.
AFL coaches are dissected and analysed more than laboratory specimens, but no one can deny Woosher is doing a great job with this patched-up Bombers team. He’s like the Pope at Essendon now; a serene presence with lots of wrinkles around his eyes and a quiet smile.
The Bombers have something that Richmond, Collingwood and Gold Coast have either lost or had to go looking for in the course of this season. The Bombers have got spirit. Vice-captain Mark Baguley is intense and athletically remarkable in that he does so much for a player of his size (180 centimetres). His game shines.
Skipper B.J. Goddard was interesting to watch last Saturday. His touch had deserted him a little – once he never seemed to kick an errant pass, on Saturday he kicked several. But he was like the glue holding the construction that is a hastily assembled footy team together. His body language was different from previous years. I didn’t see him berating teammates.
The top-up players also made interesting viewing. James Kelly (Geelong) was outstanding. He may not get to as many contests as he did in his prime but he was commanding when he did. Ryan Crowley (Fremantle) is obviously accommodating injury just to get out on the field but he still gave evidence of being a much more broadly gifted player than Ross Lyon’s game plan ever let him be. Matt Dea (Richmond) has always been an honest footballer. He is no less honest now.
The Bombers didn’t win – but they could have. Some will say that North took the foot off the pedal after Essendon failed to score a goal in the first half, but I think there was a bit more to it than that. North is a method team. They play with practised precision. Essendon are not precise. But it’s the other thing they have, a mad enthusiasm to play, which kept putting them back in the game.
A female Essendon supporter told me before the game she feared the Bombers could lose by 200 points. But she turned up anyway. The sort of supporter who uses football as a way of blaming others for their own failures seems to have departed, to have been burnt off by the fiery furnace through which the club has passed.
Billy Jennings says following the Bombers this year is surreal. He has a name for the experience - Zen footy. “You go to games with no expectations.”
After the match, North coach Brad Scott said it was a victory that felt like a loss. Essendon left the field to a standing ovation. Surreal.
I thought Knights introduced a really excellent run and gun style of footy that won us a fair share of good games if I recall (including anzac day) and you still see remnants of it in our play style todayThe only players currently playing from the Knights era are Zaka and Dempsey. You're drawing a long bow.
This is the current coaches thread not for a has been that never was, or will be again.
Here's a challenge for Clarkson, leave Hawthorn and coach the bombers! another couple of medals and he'll be ready for another big challenge.Yes I am joking!
True story… we had a chance to get Clarkson and a chance to get the ‘next’ Clarkson in Bolton… we fluffed both chances.What might have been.
Take your Woosha hate somewhere else.
Here's a challenge for Clarkson, leave Hawthorn and coach the bombers! another couple of medals and he'll be ready for another big challenge.Yes I am joking!
True story… we had a chance to get Clarkson and a chance to get the ‘next’ Clarkson in Bolton… we fluffed both chances.
What might have been.
What's Chinese for the sound .. "Woosh" CJ? Do they have a word for such a noise/action?放大 is zoom. Close enough?
Maybe … would of thought something more along the lines of the wind/noise, though.
Edit:
whoosh
[hwoosh, hwoo sh, woosh, woo sh]
1.a loud, rushing noise, as of air or water:
a great whoosh as the door opened.
verb (used without object)
2. to move swiftly with a gushing or hissing noise:
gusts of wind whooshing through the trees.
verb (used with object)
3. to move (an object, a person, etc.) with a whooshing motion or sound:
The storm whooshed the waves over the road.