How John Worsfold hopes to help West Coast Eagles bounce back after homecoming

Worsfold, the club’s premiership captain in 1992 and 1994 and the premiership coach in 2006, has revealed his interest in the role that will see him oversee the club’s men’s, women's and WAFL football programs, was sparked just a few weeks ago in a conversation with CEO and premiership teammate Don Pyke.

“It picked up momentum really quickly,” he said on SEN of the role announced this week. “It was only about three weeks ago and I spoke to Pykey and we just talked about how he had been going in his first year in the role and what he had learned and what he thought was going to help the club going forward and he talked about this role.”

“I wasn’t considering or looking to get back into football but the role just sounds like a great role.

“I will be able to use all of the experience I have gathered over so many years in the game at a few different clubs and to support a new coach and a new coaching group.”

“The fact that when I left coaching West Coast back in 2013 it was just the senior men’s team and then the WAFL team came into play and then the AFLW team. It is a very different environment and I am really keen to see what value I can add to get all three programs running exceptionally well.”

Worsfold said the Eagles had been trying to regenerate their list for “a few years” but declared that he wasn’t a “big believer in the word rebuild”.

“I think we know the AFL system is cyclic,” he said. “We do admire Sydney and Geelong for the way they have been able to maintain reasonably high positions on the ladder in between premiership opportunities but the facts are that those opportunities of premiership wins still come at a similar rate as the clubs that maybe take bigger dives.”

West Coast’s 2006 and 2018 flags came 12 years apart with a wooden spoon in between. Geelong’s 2011 and 2022 flags were 11 years apart and Sydney is still waiting on the follow up to the 2012 flag after losing its last four grand finals.

“Really the key is how you plan when you go into that period post premiership and how quickly you can see what your next premiership side is going to look like and you start to put the building pieces into place,” he said. “That does take time and that is why clubs don’t get onto it quickly. That period of struggling can be stretched out and in the past West Coast have shown that after premiership eras they do have slumps but they do plan well to come out of them fairly quickly.”

The Eagles have now missed finals in the past four seasons and have won just 10 games in the past three years.

But Worsfold pointed out how quickly things had come together for the Hawks after five years out of finals between 2018 and this year.

“It will take time. If you look at Hawthorn’s pathway from their last flag in 2015, then a few years first with Clarkson and then Sam Michell’s first year or two – finding their way and then putting things in place.

“The pieces of the puzzle through the draft and then learning the game plan and then getting consistent games into those young players and it all came together pretty quickly for them this year.”

“For West Coast – we are a little bit behind that but those pieces of the plan have to be really clear to everyone. I believe you can move from a team that is struggling to even look like winning games to really competing in every game strongly and then very quickly to winning those games that put you in the hunt for the top eight again.”

“Time wise it doesn’t happen in six months, it doesn’t happen in 12 months. A lot of things have to come together really well.”

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The Eagles senior player group were accused under outgoing coach Adam Simpson of allowing standards to slip but Worsfold said he would make no judgement on that until he started work and was in a position to assess the group.

“The best way for me to assess that is for me to get in there and talk to everyone and get a feel for what it is like. I will make my judgments from there,” he said.

“I have always believed that coaching groups are put in there to give young athletes every opportunity to achieve their dreams and achieve the best they can possibly be. The best athletes are those that drive themselves and use those resources to get where they want to get to. Some do need a push along from their mentors as well. You have got to find that balance and I think that is the key thing that I will be looking for from the footy club – that a lot of players will want to drive the standards. Everyone has to buy into it and all be aligned.”