Coaching Staff Senior Coach: John Worsfold - Thank you John

[Mr Bultitude]

Thanks for sticking with us in our darkest hour John. All the best.

 

[Beerfish]

Dear John..

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Thanks Woosh.

I’m sure I’m in the minority but I do believe a lot of our problems are not for lack of you trying to fix them with one hand tied behind your back.

I do think you’ve probably slowly turned around an extremely unprofessional environment toward the right direction, even if you didn’t get as far as you wanted.

I hope you’re right in that we will see improvement soon.

All the best and thanks again.

 

[JT_the_Man]

Cheers Woosha.

 

[Westlo]

Thanks for helping us out when we needed it Woosha, thanks for the exciting gameplan even though we couldn't defend, sure beats this boring pos style we play now where we still can't defend.

 

[BrunoV]

Sometimes it is necessary to think of the counterfactual when assessing claims such as "John was a hero and held the place together".

Was the alternative the necessary collapse of Essendon was it? Or was Worsfold the glue chosen to force everything back together to entrench the Essendon way?

What is heroic in being paid north of $500k a year to do a job as a steady hand. Isn't that what he was employed to do?

5 years later, and understanding he may have been hamstrung, but also seeing that he did nothing in response to that, it's not at all clear what I'm supposed to be thanking him for.

 

[ant555]

Sometimes it is necessary to think of the counterfactual when assessing claims such as "John was a hero and held the place together".

Was the alternative the necessary collapse of Essendon was it? Or was Worsfold the glue chosen to force everything back together to entrench the Essendon way?

What is heroic in being paid north of $500k a year to do a job as a steady hand. Isn't that what he was employed to do?

5 years later, and understanding he may have been hamstrung, but also seeing that he did nothing in response to that, it's not at all clear what I'm supposed to be thanking him for.

You do raise an interesting point. Once he knew he was hamstrung and not going to get his way he was pretty much staying around for a pay check. The club then let him because they where too scared to sack another coach after giving him a premature extension.

 

[MiguelM]

Surely these days the senior coach should not be hamstrung from moving the club forward. Is this real or just a lame excuse?

A senior coach these days could easily use the media to get their gripes about internal issues out there.

Sheeds got his way when he came to the club.

 

[84859300]

You do raise an interesting point. Once he knew he was hamstrung and not going to get his way he was pretty much staying around for a pay check. The club then let him because they where too scared to sack another coach after giving him a premature extension.

I'm always going to look at it that we paid him out - regardless that he was at the club.

Essentially, when the board had realised the extension wasn't getting the results we were after; they had to sweep another failed decision under the carpet with a "succession plan".

 

[ant555]

I'm always going to look at it that we paid him out - regardless that he was at the club.

Essentially, when the board had realised the extension wasn't getting the results we were after; they had to sweep another failed decision under the carpet with a "succession plan".

You are right. It was a claytons pay out because they did not want to sack a coach.

 

[ghostdog]

Sometimes it is necessary to think of the counterfactual when assessing claims such as "John was a hero and held the place together".

Was the alternative the necessary collapse of Essendon was it? Or was Worsfold the glue chosen to force everything back together to entrench the Essendon way?

What is heroic in being paid north of $500k a year to do a job as a steady hand. Isn't that what he was employed to do?

5 years later, and understanding he may have been hamstrung, but also seeing that he did nothing in response to that, it's not at all clear what I'm supposed to be thanking him for.

I agree revision is always necessary. I don't think it's necessary before acknowledging the positive things he did.

Cheers Woosha.
Developing the kids through 2016 and 2017, and restoring pride in the club through that time. Even now, I don't necessarily think we're in that bad a position.
All the best.

 

[ant555]

Surely these days the senior coach should not be hamstrung from moving the club forward. Is this real or just a lame excuse?

A senior coach these days could easily use the media to get their gripes about internal issues out there.

Sheeds got his way when he came to the club.

Sheedy was just as good at getting the right people in his corner as he was at coaching. He knew where the power base was and he aligned himself with them.
Knights did not and tried to change the system and got burnt. Worsfold was not really into the politics either other than saying he was going to see out his contract.

 

[MiguelM]

So who are the faceless people behind the scenes? Do any top clubs face this problem?

 

[quotemokc]

Meh, thanks for '16 and '17 I guess, everything after that sucked.

 

[DERO]

Dear Woosha.

It was your fault that Dodoro keeps picking up flankers and also your fault that Joe Daniher has been injured for the last few years. It was also your fault that Heppell has s**t growth plates, McKenna is Irish and Smith has biscuit knees. I also blame you for Coronavirus and the imminent breakdown of my marriage.

May god have mercy on your soul.

 

[yodellinhank]

But John believes in the group, so how was he hamstrung?

 

[Lore]

I don’t know if John should’ve been senior coach this year.

But I do like Rutten and I think it was beneficial for him to have Worsfold around as a mentor, as a first time coach. He seems like the type that is absolutely driven in his personal development, and would have taken that opportunity with both hands.

Also after the Hird as senior coach and weird chains of authority at the club during that period that led to god only knows what going on inside those four walls, I’m pretty happy to have an experienced person as the bottom line across the whole situation while Rutten figured out where was what and what was who.

So I guess my objection is that ultimately John should’ve had the job title “mentor” and Rutten should’ve had the title “senior coach”. But that also would’ve meant throwing Rutten to the wolves with the mandatory press conferences, which I guess is why things were done as they were.

So ultimately I guess my objection is semantic.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Off rides John into the sunset leaving behind an unbalanced list, terrible on-field results and (reportedly) disillusioned players - issues that he'll never have to answer for.

Thanks for taking over under difficult circumstances but hopefully our next appointment does a bit better.

 

[ant555]

So who are the faceless people behind the scenes? Do any top clubs face this problem?

Carlton.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Carlton.

He said top clubs.

 

[ant555]

He said top clubs.

I would say the Crows as well but they are not top and actually run by an ex player with a big media role.
Geelong board has always been a closed shop but they have had the stability of the best recruiter in the league for 20 years .

 

[freddy mercury]

I don’t know if John should’ve been senior coach this year.

But I do like Rutten and I think it was beneficial for him to have Worsfold around as a mentor, as a first time coach. He seems like the type that is absolutely driven in his personal development, and would have taken that opportunity with both hands.

Also after the Hird as senior coach and weird chains of authority at the club during that period that led to god only knows what going on inside those four walls, I’m pretty happy to have an experienced person as the bottom line across the whole situation while Rutten figured out where was what and what was who.

So I guess my objection is that ultimately John should’ve had the job title “mentor” and Rutten should’ve had the title “senior coach”. But that also would’ve meant throwing Rutten to the wolves with the mandatory press conferences, which I guess is why things were done as they were.

So ultimately I guess my objection is semantic.

Yeah got me ****ed too. Couldn't understand why you come out and say this will be the last year etc and still let him coach. What's the point? He knows he won't be there next year, players know, what possible incentive do you have to play for the coach?

If the players aren't buying in and playing for the coach, what's the point? Another terrible decision made by our club.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I would say the Crows as well but they are not top and actually run by an ex player with a big media role.
Geelong board has always been a closed shop but they have had the stability of the best recruiter in the league for 20 years .

There really is a large similarity between us and Richmond prior to Peggy and Brendan taking charge.

 

[MiguelM]

So the question is, do we need to change things up as a club behind the scenes? Can Rutten have some influence?

One thing for sure, finishing the way we did is sure to stir up questions and some re-evaluations into the club as a whole.

Might be a good thing that we nearly bottomed out rather than scraping into the finals and start ther back slapping again.

 

[Lore]

Yeah got me f’ed too. Couldn't understand why you come out and say this will be the last year etc and still let him coach. What's the point? He knows he won't be there next year, players know, what possible incentive do you have to play for the coach?

If the players aren't buying in and playing for the coach, what's the point? Another terrible decision made by our club.

They weren't being coached by Worsfold though. Rutten was organising the training schedule, teaching the game plan, and doing all of the game day coaching. The players were going to Rutten with pretty much everything. Worsfold was mentoring Rutten on how to actually coach, how to manage people, how to communicate effectively, explaining how different parts of the job work and how he handles stuff, and then overseeing the whole thing (being that he would still be a line manager for the other coaches afaik) and doing the media stuff.

I think Rutten is more ready to be a senior coach now than he was a year ago, and I think most people in that position wanting to move into senior coaching would jump at the chance Rutten has had to really pick the brains of someone with that much experience over the course of a full season. So I don't have any problem with the actual handover, except that I wish he'd got that experience under normal conditions and not in a bloody hub with no contact allowed.

It's just the job titles that don't make a lot of sense, as Worsfold is essentially a type of manager doing the accountability stuff and mentoring Rutten, while Rutten is the actual coach doing all the footy things. The titles themselves seem to have been determined by a couple of AFL rules, particularly imo 30.2(a) and (c) of the AFL Regulations: