Analysis Where does Simpson rank amongst WCE Premiership coaches?

Remove this Banner Ad

Rowan18

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 20, 2018
7,245
14,577
AFL Club
West Coast
This is a slight deviation - I think the best team of the lot from a pure footballing perspective was the 92-94 Eagles, but I enjoy watching the 2018 generation more than any other. This is a group of blokes more unified than I think we've ever seen at the club.

And let's be honest: 2005-2006 era Eagles was bloody ugly footy. It's not a comment on us, but a comment on where the game was at the time.
It was the swans who played ugly footy back then, not west coast. We were known for handball and ball on, when Kerr, Judd and Cousins were on their skills and run were exhilarating (watch Q1 of 2006 GF for example). The reason the Swans v Eagles were so close in games back then is they played two opposite styles that were great at cancelling each other out.
 
Oct 29, 2007
22,099
29,862
Perth Western Australia
AFL Club
West Coast
Coach wise:
Malthouse
Simpson
Woosh

Who knows where Simpson may end up by the end of his tenure. Another flag or two and he mounts a compelling case to challenge Malthouse.

Over enough time I think it will be Worsfold who resonates the most. The man is basically an avatar of the club and has the bnf named after him.

Maybe not as a coach but how people remember the club as a whole.
 

Avalor

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 15, 2009
13,103
8,936
Jakarta
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Perth, Donnybrook, Chelsea
I actually rank him above Worsfold now.

- Achieved two GF appearances (and a flag) with a far less talented list. It is a common argument (although probably oversimplifying or downplaying Woosha's role) that with Cox, Judd, Cousins and Kerr in the midfield even Mark Neeld could have sustained success. Lynch and Hansen had silver service in 2005 and 2006. Our premiership team had the likes of Chris Masten and Jamie Cripps - they certainly played their role during the year but they are nowhere near star players, and as a bonus we easily dealt with the loss of Naitanui, Gaff and Sheppard during finals because our game plan was sound.
- More tactically astute - everyone knew Woosha's plan B was Hunter going to the other end of the ground. Simmo has inherited an outdated game plan and list with massive holes, developed the web to achieve a GF in his second year, abandoned it when it was found out in 2016, then developed a more successful one in the past couple of years focused on kicking and marking.
- Although Woosha garnered massive amounts of respect (being a dual premiership captain of the club and all), he never seemed to bond with the players like Simmo obviously has. Cannot remember Worsfold doing things like taking troubled players to the Tiwi Islands with his family.
- His press conferences are a thing of beauty when something really irks him - Worsfold's was boring as batshit. See: Basil's 'culture of arrogance' retort.

One more flag and I will put him above Malthouse.

Agree 100℅ with the above.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Avalor

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 15, 2009
13,103
8,936
Jakarta
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Perth, Donnybrook, Chelsea
Yeah nah. Maybe, just maybe, the reason we made two Grand Finals is because Simmo was there both times as head coach?

Tactical innovations aren't the brainchild of just one person, it would have been the whole coaching group that came up with the 2015 web and our 2018 kick and mark plan.

How did Pyke go this year?

Exactly, well put. People are all to ready to throw the bouquets at simmo's assistants and not the man himself. I don't understand that. Give the great man credit where it's due - after all he chose those same assistants, did he not? Choosing the right staff is a healthy part of management skills.
 
Exactly, well put. People are all to ready to throw the bouquets at simmo's assistants and not the man himself. I don't understand that. Give the great man credit where it's due - after all he chose those same assistants, did he not? Choosing the right staff is a healthy part of management skills.

Those same people will be the ones tweeting #sacksimmo when we lose a game.
 
First if I retrospectively compare him with Mick in 1992 and Woosha in 2006 due to the strength of those lists relative to our current one.
However, he still sits third in an overall sense because Mick went on to win in 1994, and Woosha is a club legend who also demonstrated an ability to rebuild our list and culture.
 
First if I retrospectively compare him with Mick in 1992 and Woosha in 2006 due to the strength of those lists relative to our current one.
However, he still sits third in an overall sense because Mick went on to win in 1994, and Woosha is a club legend who also demonstrated an ability to rebuild our list and culture.
I always feel like you have to give Woosh the brickbats for the bad culture if you want to give him the kudos for the good culture.
 

Avalor

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 15, 2009
13,103
8,936
Jakarta
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Perth, Donnybrook, Chelsea
I always feel like you have to give Woosh the brickbats for the bad culture if you want to give him the kudos for the good culture.

Spot on. Whatever Woosha achieved here was ruined by the bad culture that he allowed to fester. Actually, I would already have Simmo at the top of our tree for exactly the opposite. I believe that the culture Simmo has fostered, unparalleled at our club, has been the greatest of his feats - puts him above Malthouse, even with the 2 cups, in my eyes.
 

Rowan18

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 20, 2018
7,245
14,577
AFL Club
West Coast
Spot on. Whatever Woosha achieved here was ruined by the bad culture that he allowed to fester. Actually, I would already have Simmo at the top of our tree for exactly the opposite. I believe that the culture Simmo has fostered, unparalleled at our club, has been the greatest of his feats - puts him above Malthouse, even with the 2 cups, in my eyes.
Malthouse oversaw a massive cultural change that saw the club achieve the feat of being the first non-victorian team to win the premiership.

I've heard him say that when he arrived, the club felt you had to be at least 5 goals up at 3QT to win at the MCG and the players knew more about the guys in the WAFL reserves than the players at AFL level based interstate. 92 was a huge achievement and I still rank Malthouse as the best coach.
 
Oct 29, 2007
22,099
29,862
Perth Western Australia
AFL Club
West Coast
Spot on. Whatever Woosha achieved here was ruined by the bad culture that he allowed to fester. Actually, I would already have Simmo at the top of our tree for exactly the opposite. I believe that the culture Simmo has fostered, unparalleled at our club, has been the greatest of his feats - puts him above Malthouse, even with the 2 cups, in my eyes.

I agree he let it fester but the problems were there well before Woosha took over. He was given a chance to rebuild it and did a fine job of it quickly where as most clubs would have tekn 10+ years to even get back on track.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Sep 3, 2005
34,947
100,675
Adelaide
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Baghdad Bombers
After B2B in 2019 he’ll be #1

Here2tellyouwhy interested in your thoughts?
Im a doer not a thinker, and I dont think we will win the flag, I know we will.
So I doing something about it and booking flights and accommodation asap bro.
 
Sep 15, 2011
31,342
47,576
AFL Club
West Coast
I think so. That midfield four is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time. Glass also led a more than handy defence. As great as Shuey and Gaff are they are not in the same league as Judd and Cousins, and Cox is our undisputed goat ruck.
The midfield four was elite but the forward line was junk. I don’t understand those saying Simmo has less talent at his disposal, he has a far superior forward line (with one of the great modern full forwards), comparable backline and still has some handy midfielders. Don’t think the talent available is a deciding factor here.
 
The midfield four was elite but the forward line was junk. I don’t understand those saying Simmo has less talent at his disposal, he has a far superior forward line (with one of the great modern full forwards), comparable backline and still has some handy midfielders. Don’t think the talent available is a deciding factor here.

Lynch was the only player in the forward line even remotely close to A-grade but that's fine when you have those kinds of midfielders winning the ball in the guts and planting it on your chest. We all love Shuey and Gaff but let's face it, they are a league below the big 3 from our 2006 flag.

There's a reason many supporters classify Judd, Cousins and Kerr within the top 20 midfielders this century with Cox as GOAT ruck. No other side can brag of having that quality in the modern AFL era.
 
Feb 26, 2012
17,020
47,255
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Lynch was the only player in the forward line even remotely close to A-grade but that's fine when you have those kinds of midfielders winning the ball in the guts and planting it on your chest. We all love Shuey and Gaff but let's face it, they are a league below the big 3 from our 2006 flag.

There's a reason many supporters classify Judd, Cousins and Kerr within the top 20 midfielders this century with Cox as GOAT ruck. No other side can brag of having that quality in the modern AFL era.
Only comparable centre square is Black, Voss & Akermanis imo. Cox vs Keating brings us over the line though.
 
Apr 10, 2004
6,868
8,452
perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
49ers, Liverpool
I actually rank him above Worsfold now.

- Achieved two GF appearances (and a flag) with a far less talented list. It is a common argument (although probably oversimplifying or downplaying Woosha's role) that with Cox, Judd, Cousins and Kerr in the midfield even Mark Neeld could have sustained success. Lynch and Hansen had silver service in 2005 and 2006. Our premiership team had the likes of Chris Masten and Jamie Cripps - they certainly played their role during the year but they are nowhere near star players

Is it far less talented?
Top end mids yes, but not as far back as one might think. Shuey or Yeo certainly wouldn't have been out of place in the 06 midfield group.
Cripps >>>>> Armstrong.
Masten ~ Rojo. God could you imagine this place if Masten missed a sitter from 10m out to almost lose us the prelim?
18 forward line far better than 06. 06 suffers from too many mids playing forward.
Backline fairly solid both sides. Leaning towards 18 but Glass is hard to go past (pun intended).
 
May 5, 2006
62,726
70,016
AFL Club
West Coast
Under Simpson (eh) we've won 11, 16, 16, 12, 16 games in 5 seasons. 9 finals, 6 wins, 2 GFs, one flag.

I rate Simpson for what he's done with the players at his disposal. 2015 surprised everyone and 7/22 from the GF side weren't on the list in 2018 and 3 of the better ones weren't available. He inherited a decent team without being amazing and has put his own stamp on it. Wasn't afraid to turf Wellingham and Hill or play Mitch Brown, Schofield, Jetta, Redden, Sheed, Masten in the WAFL for form/team balance. Was also happy to give up an in form ruckman in Sinclair to try and address an area of need. We've had a good spine for all of Simpson's reign (when fit) but winning a flag with our midfield stocks minus Naitanui and Gaff would've been 100:1 odds pre-season.

Remember Simpson is an outsider. Similar to Malthouse early days but the club is a lot more established. Worsfold as a favourite son and Malthouse after winning two flags had a lot more good will in the bank. If we had gone downhill under Simpson the knives would have been out fast. He's still copped plenty of criticism even with our worst season being 11-11.
 
Oct 29, 2007
22,099
29,862
Perth Western Australia
AFL Club
West Coast
Under Simpson (eh) we've won 11, 16, 16, 12, 16 games in 5 seasons. 9 finals, 6 wins, 2 GFs, one flag.

I rate Simpson for what he's done with the players at his disposal. 2015 surprised everyone and 7/22 from the GF side weren't on the list in 2018 and 3 of the better ones weren't available. He inherited a decent team without being amazing and has put his own stamp on it. Wasn't afraid to turf Wellingham and Hill or play Mitch Brown, Schofield, Jetta, Redden, Sheed, Masten in the WAFL for form/team balance. Was also happy to give up an in form ruckman in Sinclair to try and address an area of need. We've had a good spine for all of Simpson's reign (when fit) but winning a flag with our midfield stocks minus Naitanui and Gaff would've been 100:1 odds pre-season.

Remember Simpson is an outsider. Similar to Malthouse early days but the club is a lot more established. Worsfold as a favourite son and Malthouse after winning two flags had a lot more good will in the bank. If we had gone downhill under Simpson the knives would have been out fast. He's still copped plenty of criticism even with our worst season being 11-11.

I remember the amount of criticism he got from the local media and a from BF when we were 4 wins and 7 loss's half way through the 2014 season.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back