John Worsfold

We’ll never know anyway. He could have been. His refusal to drop certain players at certain times was bad. When things wouldn’t go right game day, he was too slow to fix it or not fix it at all. He definitely had his moments though and probably would have ended up pretty good, but I don’t think regardless of what happened he was ever going to be a long term coach

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2013 we made finals, but were banned from competing - Hird coached 14 wins and 7 losses; and the next year Bomba got us into the finals and we were unlucky to lose to Kangas.
2015 the wheels fell off and you cannot judge anyone on that year.

It is all conjecture, but if there was no drugs bullshit saga, no loss of player picks and no suspensions, and blokes like Paddy, Hibbo and Crameri were still at the club then we were right in the mix. In my view, HIrd would have become a greater coach than most, but we will never know.

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its certainly true that Woosha is yet to prove he can turn a basket case of a club around with some players who have had a year off and 3 JLT games.

He does have a lot of experience and he has won a quite a few finals, so he definitely has some runs on the board.

He will certainly be scrutinized, but other than a few more wins than last year and developing the younger players, it will be hard to hold him too accountable since its a list he has inherited (all but a few).

Of course if the older players have great performances then he will have less excuses, but in the meantime I m happy to support the coach as despite he JLT losses I feel he will have learnt a lot about the players and they would have learnt a lot too.

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Saga thread in 3… 2…

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Cult of Woosha.

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[quote=“Bacchusfox, post:1876, topic:2976, full:true”]

Obviously the Club is better off with the Saga and penalties all behind us.

Whether Worsfold is a better coach than JHird is a question that will only be answered by results, and to date Worsfold has none. The Players are better off as suspensions are done and most are back, but I would argue that if Ryder, Crameri, Hibberd were in the squad we would be better off.

So perhaps I am mental.
[/quote]I don’t think you’re mental to question Worsfold, even if (and I agree) the side is better off post-saga than during it. But I don’t get the comparison to Hird. Hird was gone. The question is whether Worsfold was the best coach we could have gotten. Is he better than a Bolton/Fagan, or some other assistant? Not a clue at this stage. Worsfold is in many ways entering his first “real” season. And we don’t yet know if he has the cattle either. But the idea that he is/was may not automatically be the best option is entirely fair in my opinion.

I just don’t get the comparisons to Hird. Even if he didn’t go in 2015 when he did, with his problems and the players banned there is no way he could or should have stayed in 2016. In hindsight Hird should have left in 2013 and he would hopefully be a lot better and back in the fold by now (and his kids might be playing Aussie rules :frowning: ). But then, hindsight is nearly always king.

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Eagles were a basket case when he took them over.

So, Woosha is proven on that front.

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Using that logic Sheedy would be perfect for us because we were a basket case in the 70’s. And using the premiership angle would mean that Chris Scott has been a success at Geelong…

He has been successful. That doesn’t automatically mean he will be now. The WCE/Sydney teams were arguably the weakest in the last 20 years to win a premiership, so he could also have just been lucky. Or not. And even if he did have it, does he still with the way football changes. I just don’t think anyone can know yet.

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Exactly right BWAS, and he rebuilt them twice, from 2002-06, when he took over from Ken Judge and then again after their own drugs saga that eventually culminated in a spoon in 2010 and he got them back into the top four the year after.

After that it was a steady fall before he left but he does have the runs on the board with list rebuilds.

I have faith in his ability to do the same as he did at the Eagles and build the list into a pretty successful unit.

Judging by the amount of the midfielders that we’ve drafted in recent years, as opposed to many of the previous years, it’s clear that he has identified a large weakness in the list and has gone about correcting that.

It’s a similar strategy to what he had at the Eagles that helped them become successful.

He just needs a bit of time and patience from us all to show how good he can be as a coach.

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I’d like to see some of wooshas headcaseness that lurks below the surface come out in the team.

Whether Bacchusfox is a better coach than Woosha is a question that will only be answered by results, and to date Bacchusfox has none.

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Coached Essendon to a spoon

Bacchus: 0
Woosha: 1

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I’d take a type writing monkey over BF

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Outstanding.

Having met him, Woosha is definitely a healer, I like the way he talks up all his players and is respectful to everybody. He managed transitioning a lot of young guys into being senior players last year while respectfully transitioning out the “top ups” and other older players with honour and tapping their knowledge and experience in on field coaching roles.

He has never wavered from welcoming back all the players who wanted to come back and respected those that didn’t. He has let the older players know that they won’t get a free ride and of the need to progress the younger players, all other things being equal, as he must.

We all of a sudden seem to have a functional forward line and we have developed more backline players and we are also developing our midfield, and we have unprecedented depth in our list. Now the rubber hits the road with how well he can get this side to gel and perform at the highest level. This is obviously the biggest and most important test, but the fact that we are not a back biting rabble who lost all our star players is testament enough to him so far.

It is not about a comparison to Hird, it is about who was the best coach for the post Hird era. The fact that he managed the unexpectedly severe suspensions so well and appears to have the list in as good a shape as could be hoped for in the circumstances is testament enough.

Now whether he proves to be the new Messiah or maybe a John the Baptist (the one who paves the way for Him), doesn’t really matter, either would be a good outcome and remarkable enough given where we were when he arrived.

My feeling is that he is either one or the other, and with the support of his assistants, recruiters and administrators I think we were very fortunate he was available when we needed him most and not many others could have done as good a job.

That said we are about to find out where we are at for real, and need to reserve judgement given a lot of gelling needs to occur, and it would seem a functional midfield is where we will feel the most growing pains initially, especially with Leuey going down. I suspect we will be in a reasonable place by about 6 games in (injuries permitting), that said our backs and forwards have work to do too, with whether Hooker is a success as a forward and if that compensates sufficiently his absence down back is a key question.

But I digress, if this year gets us mid table or better with good development in the younger players I think Woosha continues to be a success.

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We make finals or he’s a failure,… coz he’ll cost me, rather than earn me a hundred clams.

Can’t see it any other way … :wink:

“LID OFF. By the way, he’s a failure.”

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Let’s give him some time to show us what he can do with a full team.

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Kevin Sheedy eyes

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