John Worsfold

Playing career

Born in Subiaco, and growing up in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, Worsfold attended South Fremantle Senior High School in Beaconsfield, graduating in 1985. Falling into the South Fremantle Football Club's recruitment zone, he played in the club's underage teams, and also played in the Western Australia under-18 team that won the state's first Teal Cup in 1985. Worsfold made his senior WAFL debut for South Fremantle in 1986, and played a total of 19 games in his debut season, leading him to be awarded the Rookie of the Year award by the Daily News. At South Fremantle, he also won "Player of the Future" and "Best First Year Player" awards in 1985 and 1986, respectively.

In October 1986, Worsfold was named as a member of the West Coast Eagles' inaugural 32-man squad. He made his senior debut for the club in round four of the 1987 season, against Carlton at Princes Park. Worsfold played a total of 11 games in the club's inaugural season, and also played five games in the WAFL for South Fremantle. The following season, he cemented his role in the side playing every game except for two games missed due to suspension in rounds nine and ten. At the end of the season, Worsfold was awarded the Club Champion Award as West Coast's best and fairest, winning by ten votes from runner-up Guy McKenna. He was also awarded a total of five votes in the Brownlow Medal for the best player in the competition, including two votes for 30-disposal and 28-disposal games against Essendon and Melbourne. Worsfold played in his first finals match at the conclusion of the 1988 season, a two-point loss to Melbourne at Waverley Park. Worsfold led West Coast in disposals, kicks, and tackles in 1988.

Worsfold had similar seasons in 1989 and 1990. Having been appointed vice-captain prior to the start of the 1989 season, he took on greater leadership roles under the influence of new coach Michael Malthouse. After the club's loss in the qualifying final to Collingwood, captain Steve Malaxos was dropped from the side for the preliminary final, with Worsfold appointed captain in his place. Moving from a midfield role to a half-back flank in 1991, Worsfold was officially made club captain, and played a total of 21 games, including the loss in the 1991 Grand Final to Hawthorn. Worsfold captained the club to premierships in the 1992 and 1994 seasons, and retired at the end of the 1998 season, having played 209 games for the club.

Playing style

Worsfold began his career as a midfielder, but moved to a position on the half-back flank later in his career, where he played most of his football. Considered one of the club's toughest and most courageous players, he was suspended twice in his career, both times for striking.

Worsfold was named on a half-back flank in West Coast's "Team of the Decade" in 1996, and in the same position in teams named for the 20-year and 25-year anniversaries of the club's first season. He was an inaugural inductee into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004, and an inaugural inductee into the West Coast Eagles Hall of Fame in 2011. The Australian Football Hall of Fame's selection process has been criticised for precluding Worsfold's induction, as the Hall of Fame prohibits selectors from considering a person based on a combination of their playing and coaching careers. A function room at Patersons Stadium, the John Worsfold Room, is also named after Worsfold.

Coaching career

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.

On 5 September 2013, after an underwhelming season for the Eagles, who finished on 13th the AFL ladder, Worsfold stepped down as the coach of the Eagles.

In his 11 years with the club, Worsfold coached 281 games for the Eagles, achieving 149 wins, 2 draws and 130 losses, for a winning percentage of 53.38%.

Due to the death of a close friend, Phillip Walsh (Adelaide Crows coach who was killed in July 2015), Worsford took a coaching advisory role for the Adelaide Crows.

On 5 October 2015, Worsfold was appointed as the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club. He signed a three-year contract. His first season at the club would prove a difficult one, with 12 senior players including the captain Jobe Watson and vice-captain Dyson Heppell receiving suspensions for the 2016 season, as a consequence of Essendon's 2013 doping scandal.

Coaching style

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 second and first 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.

Coaching statistics

Playing honours

Team

Individual

Coaching honours

Team

Individual

Personal life

Worsfold married his wife, Georgina, in 1994, with whom he has three children: Sophie, Charlie, and Grace. Outside of football, he completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy at the Curtin University of Technology in 1989, and later worked as a pharmacist for an amount of time. In 2009, Worsfold completed a course at INSEAD, a business administration school in Fontainebleau, France. Worsfold is also a director of CR Steel, a steel fabrication and installation company based in Cockburn Central, and occasionally works as a motivational speaker. Worsfold's younger brother, Peter Worsfold, played 31 games for the Brisbane Bears, and later captained South Fremantle.