The Worsfold coaching situation mega-thread, part 2

[greatwhiteshark]

Look the simple thing is that Worsfold just is lost with the group now.

Everything i associate with Woosha like Hardness, passion, Committment, soul and effort is simply not part of his squad. The group as a whole and probably the entire club is lacking in every department. Once the trend setters of the AFL we are now a laughing stock!!!

The players are not listining to whatever he is telling them, the message is stale.

John is not a good coach, never has been a good coach in my view. But he has served the club well and ended up a premiership coach on the back of a couple of super star players. But he got the credit and that is fine.

He has no plan A let alone a plan B, the eagles I watched today would not win the WAFL, their tackling and pressure was nothing short of a disgrace, amatuer clubs tackle and put pressure on their opponents better than that.

For all of you who love Woosha you really have to accept the fact that we need a new message, we need a plan, we need someone who will develope the players, someone who embraces the competition and understands that football is played with passion every week.

John needs to resign or the club should sack him immediately.

Act now, there is not one ounce of an upside to John Worsfold coaching the club in the future, not one little bit.

 

[swannies]

Everything i associate with Woosha like Hardness, passion, Committment, soul and effort is simply not part of his squad. The group as a whole and probably the entire club is lacking in every department. Once the trend setters of the AFL we are now a laughing stock!!!

That's a bit melodramatic. There are a couple of things that need addressing, 1 is experience into players, that's a slow process.

When you have 1 team with 11 players, half the team, with 100 or more games experience, essentially in their prime footballing time, and the other with 12 with 50 or less and the experienced players in very poor form (but I have a theory on that ) what can we expect? Roos would do no better, because he likes experienced teams, Hardwick will struggle next year, a la Knights in his second and third years, because they don't have the experienced players there, and they're playing on raw emotion atm. Clarkson might go OK, but he wouldn't like the team, too many right footers!

The other is the midfield. We won the clearances, quite well today, but didn't get reward for them. Once a Shuey and Kerr are injected into the midfield rotations, with a fully fit Masten and then Stevens, well it's a different picture. Then Priddis and Selwood are suddenly not the 1 and 2 mids, positions they were never intended for.

 

[Mayneman]

Swannies, always positive.

The issue is not experience.

It's a lack of any recognisable gameplan, can you honestly say you know what it is?

What they are attempting to do?

No cohesion what so ever, and hasnt been for a long time.

 

[sTeeL]

I agree with Mayneman. Ive been okay with Woosh for a while because I believed he was building towards something. All I saw today was mass packs, no formations, and for some reason, Q Lynch in the centre square....

I was beyond frustrated before I saw that. After that, I lost the remaining respect I had for Worsfold as a coach. Ridiculous idea. Its bad enough he continues to play Lynch despite offering nothing all season. Its worse when he decides hes good enough(lol), smart enough(lol) or quick enough(LOL) to play as a rover.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Whats more frustrating is i can't see the media moving to apply any pressure on Woosha.

To escape criticism is too do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.

 

[swannies]

Swannies, always positive.

The issue is not experience.

It's a lack of any recognisable gameplan, can you honestly say you know what it is?

What they are attempting to do?

No cohesion what so ever, and hasnt been for a long time.

No, always a pragmatist and realist. Went to Rushton to specifically watch Shuey today, just to check my bearings on whether I was off base with him or not. I don't think I am.

But you tell me, if you played an inexperienced team against an experienced, reasonably well drilled team (and we've got to admit that's what the dockers have become) what end result do you expect? You'll see exactly what you've described, lack of cohesion, a mass of mess. Richmond looked like that last year and the first part of this. Melbourne have looked like that for a couple of years. Did you know Bailey's plan last year? No one could see it.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Then Priddis and Selwood are suddenly not the 1 and 2 mids, positions they were never intended for.

And we have better players to play around the ground.

 

[Mayneman]

Thats just it Swannies, why arent you well drilled?

Why arent you executing you skills, structures?

Yes we are a good side, but we were a basketcase for fair portions of last year, yet we drafted well, implemented a gameplan and we are not an experienced side.

Last year you could see what Harvey was building toward, a zone based gameplan focusing on forward defensive pressure.

What is your plan?

And it's not just this year, it's been going on for 3 years?

There just seems to be no direction at all.

 

[CursoryMercenary]

Thats just it Swannies, why arent you well drilled?

Why arent you executing you skills, structures?

Yes we are a good side, but we were a basketcase for fair portions of last year, yet we drafted well, implemented a gameplan and we are not an experienced side.

Last year you could see what Harvey was building toward, a zone based gameplan focusing on forward defensive pressure.

What is your plan?

And it's not just this year, it's been going on for 3 years?

There just seems to be no direction at all.

Thats the problem, at the end of 08 we were going to be challenging for a flag in 11' now when is ? 14' or some shit like that?

 

[September_Glory]

Whats more frustrating is i can't see the media moving to apply any pressure on Woosha.

To escape criticism is too do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.

It only took 14 weeks for our skills coach to be questioned (to which Woosh smiled and laughed off), so I'm predicting by 2013 someone will question whether Woosha's still getting through to this playing group.

I know it's not his style, but for once I would love for Worsfold to publicly call out some of the underperforming players. In the post-match press conference he should've uttered "some senior guys like Embers are playing for their careers right now". That's not too extreme.

Then Priddis and Selwood are suddenly not the 1 and 2 mids, positions they were never intended for.

That's the problem. I think Woosh and his coaching staff have intended to put Priddis as the no.1 option.

Priddis has been the no.1 option for about 90% of every game this season for little success and there has been no change. None. The injuries excuse only flies for so long.

 

[September_Glory]

The issue is not experience.

It's a lack of any recognisable gameplan, can you honestly say you know what it is?

What they are attempting to do?

No cohesion what so ever, and hasnt been for a long time.

I see the game plan. It has changed drastically this year.

The example that illustrates it the best is watching Adam Selwood. He has this new found urgency to play on indefinitely even though it has backfired more often than paid dividends. Players like Adam Selwood, Matt Priddis and most youngsters that aren't named Stephen Hill should not be trying to sell dummies and run around the man on the mark.

It's just stupid to think that a young, inexperienced squad can pull off this high risk/high reward game plan without getting smashed by better teams. As my brother described it "You don't teach calculus to 2nd graders". It feels like we are implementing a game plan that is beyond our capabilities and the end result most weeks is likely going to be a fail.

It is not the way to build a young side. Look at Matthew Knights.

I'ld like to know why, after such a promising last 1/3rd of last season, the coaches felt they needed to amp up the scoring at the expense of our traditional strength, defense.

 

[September_Glory]

Everything i associate with Woosha like Hardness, passion, Committment, soul and effort is simply not part of his squad.

This is it.

Worsfold backers have always had this to hang their hat on.

We've always excused his tactical and strategic shortcomings because the boys come to play. "The squad embodies Woosha's playing style". Whether we were less skilled or less talented, we could count on the players going hard and playing consistently over 4 quarters.

The previous two years have been excusable because of inexperience. I didn't like it but it's unrealistic to expect rookies to sustain a 4 quarter effort at a high level.

This year for whatever reason, that commitment, that hardness has wandered in and out like the awkward guy at the party. It's becoming clearer that the players aren't responding to him like other playing squads.

All his credits in the bank (first premiership captain, premiership coach, being a great role model etc.), are about out. At most, he has til' early next season to show recognizable progress.

 

[Kama6]

I reckon he likes the huff and puff types of players too much. No good at identifying who can play and who cant.
Could end up like Richmond where they felt they couldnt drop their seniors players cause they got plenty of the ball but the team went no where for decades. Wayne Cambell Captain 300 games 4 best and fairest and the side went nowhere. Opposition coaches didnt care less if he got 10 or 40 touches. Too many players like this. Well maybe 3 at the moment.
Bringing a new coach means the loyalty thing goes out the window and we can truly rebuild.

 

[Coledinho]

Our gameplan is pretty simple Mayneman. Run it up the middle of the ground with handballs to beat the zone. Unfortunately we are just WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too slow to do this. Our skills are terrible because 9/10 kicks are under pressure or Will Schofield kickins.

We either turn it over with handballs or bad kicks and because everyones running to receive a handball it leaves our defense exposed. Its a terrible gameplan thats not working. We should be changing it. Play a loose man in defense, a small forward line and get the injured players out of the team

 

[KaLL]

Thats just it Swannies, why arent you well drilled?

Why arent you executing you skills, structures?

Yes we are a good side, but we were a basketcase for fair portions of last year, yet we drafted well, implemented a gameplan and we are not an experienced side.

Last year you could see what Harvey was building toward, a zone based gameplan focusing on forward defensive pressure.

What is your plan?

And it's not just this year, it's been going on for 3 years?

There just seems to be no direction at all.

I watched the infamous Fremantle VS. Adelaide game and do not recall seeing much that resembled a game plan. Obviously you have one now, and a good one for sure; i'm also not saying that '10 Weagles have showed the same signs as '09 Fremantle, but the case in point being that a good enough team can easily rip a young teams gameplan to shreds onfield. If thats the case with us, its concerning that we haven't shown any signs of learning from those floggings. Or it could be that we're not developing a gameplan at all. I'll see what happens up until about half way next season before i make my judgement.

 

[Marlin01]

Last year you could see what Harvey was building toward, a zone based gameplan focusing on forward defensive pressure.

That's not true. Harvey gave up on the zone after about round 6.

 

[lewigie]

I think we'll see a better indicator of if this free flowing running gameplan of Woosha's will work, when we can actually get players on the park.

 

[smilingassassin]

That's a bit melodramatic. There are a couple of things that need addressing, 1 is experience into players, that's a slow process.

When you have 1 team with 11 players, half the team, with 100 or more games experience, essentially in their prime footballing time, and the other with 12 with 50 or less and the experienced players in very poor form (but I have a theory on that ) what can we expect? Roos would do no better, because he likes experienced teams, Hardwick will struggle next year, a la Knights in his second and third years, because they don't have the experienced players there, and they're playing on raw emotion atm. Clarkson might go OK, but he wouldn't like the team, too many right footers!

The other is the midfield. We won the clearances, quite well today, but didn't get reward for them. Once a Shuey and Kerr are injected into the midfield rotations, with a fully fit Masten and then Stevens, well it's a different picture. Then Priddis and Selwood are suddenly not the 1 and 2 mids, positions they were never intended for.

Agree 100% with Swannies - the best moderator on this board.

 

[Obeanie1]

Woosha doesn't want to rely on 'gimmicks' to motivate players?

Article mentions he won't use the spoon to motivate players as he doesn't believe in using gimmicks.

What happens whan a big game comes up and you run out of gimmicks to use? is his reasoning.

If I was Woosha I wouldn't be discounting any method to generate a win. Sheedy used gimmicks all the time, I believe Eade is the same.

Hows about we do anything and everything it takes within the rules to start winning again John and cut the BS.

Port just sacked their coach and guess what? They just started winning again. Is that a gimmick too?

 

[swannies]

Re: Woosha doesn't want to rely on 'gimmicks' to motivate players?

I was waiting for someone to bring this article up.

Think about it logically though, you want the players to be self-motivated to go out and play their best football each week, without having to "hype" them up. It makes for more consistent levels of football at a high quality. Right now we're getting consistent football at low quality and if he's not finding out who the self motivated players are - well then he's never going to know.

But I actually agree with the premise of wanting them to be self-motivated.

 

[Obeanie1]

Re: Woosha doesn't want to rely on 'gimmicks' to motivate players?

We've heard this from John before.

Each game is no more important than any other, they are all four points, we need players to play well and get motivated every week not more one week and less the next.

For a while I too understood the concept and agreed.

But it isn't working.

Its a very low key, ho hum and passionless way to look at football and hey what do you know?

We are playing with zero passion, no guts and its as if our players don't even get fired up.

Woosha is saying Derbies are no different than playing say Richmond?

Well thats just not reality is it!

If he needs help coming up with 22 gimmicks to fire up the side I'm sure we could help find some for him.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Re: Woosha doesn't want to rely on 'gimmicks' to motivate players?

It seems to me that there is a strong correlation between the players we have who are 'self-motivated' and perform to the best of their abilities week in, week out, and the players criticised for being slow plodders with highly questionable disposal skills - Priddis, Waters, Selwood etc.

Mark LeCras is probably the only exception.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Re: Woosha doesn't want to rely on 'gimmicks' to motivate players?

Yeah, since when is it a part of any football coaches job to motivate his or her players...

Sounds like Worsfold shirking some of his responsibilities to me.

 

[Makka]

Re: Woosha doesn't want to rely on 'gimmicks' to motivate players?

I'd rather see Woosha breathing some fire and brimstone both privately and publicly to kick these guys in the guts! I hate the nice approach sometimes. Show some f**ken emotion!

 

[darkstar]

This was a once proud club that has been turned into a basket case.

We are a big proud club, and sometimes you need to make a stand about what is and what is not acceptable. Finishing last, getting smashed by more than 10 goals on a weekly basis is not acceptable.

I suppose the fact that Worsfold shows absolutely zero technical ability to change the game, and the fact that we have undoubtedly the worst skills in the AFL might be important.

We need a complte cleanout, our list is not looking so good and i'm afraid some of the kids will be duds.