This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2008) (Find sources: John Worsfold – news, books, scholar)

John Worsfold

Personal information
Birth	25 September 1968 (1968-09-25) (age 41)
Recruited from	South Fremantle (WAFL)
Playing career¹
Debut	Round 4, 1987, West Coast Eagles vs. Carlton, at Princes Park
Team(s)	West Coast Eagles (1987-1998) 209 games, 38 goals
Coaching career¹
Team(s)	West Coast Eagles (2002-) 188 games (102 wins, 2 draws, 84 losses)
¹ Statistics to end of End of 2009 season
Career highlights
West Coast Eagles Club Champion Award - Best & Fairest 1988 Captain of Club 1991-1998 All-Australian 2006(Coach) Premiership Captain/Player: 1992, 1994 Premiership Coach: 2006

John 'Woosha' Worsfold (born 25 September 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League and also Western Australia in interstate competition. He is the current coach of the Eagles, having been appointed in 2002.

[edit] Playing career

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.

Initially playing a midfielder role, Worsfold won the club's best and fairest award in 1988 when the Eagles first played in the finals. In 1991 Worsfold was appointed captain, and moved to a defensive role across the half back flank, where he formed part of a celebrated half-back line with fellow club legends Glen Jakovich and Guy McKenna. Worsfold was captain of the club during the 1992 and 1994 premiership seasons, becoming the club's first premiership captain. He remained captain until he retired at the end of the 1998 season, where he was controversially dropped for the club's second week finals match, a game that would have been the final game of his career. Ironically, this was a virtual repeat of what happened to his predecessor as captain, Steve Malaxos, who was dropped for the 1990 Preliminary Final and never played again. He was succeeded as captain by fellow defender and vice captain McKenna.

Worsfold was named on a half back flank in the West Coast team of the decade in 1996, and again in the club's twentieth anniversary side, "Team 20" in 2006. In both teams, Jakovich and McKenna make up the rest of the half back line.

[edit] Coaching career

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 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.

[edit] Man-on-man Defence vs Zoning Defence

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 (see news article).

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. (see news article).

[edit] Other

In addition to his distinguished AFL career he also completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy in 1989 at the Curtin University of Technology, located in Perth, Western Australia.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Famous Curtin Graduates". Retrieved March 13, 2006.

[edit] External links

• John Worsfold profile on the Official AFL Website of the West Coast Eagles Football Club