Analysis Where does Simpson rank amongst WCE Premiership coaches?

mattyc75

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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 Simmo has inherited an outdated game plan and list with massive holes, developed the web to achieve a GF in his second year, abandoned it when it was found out in 2016, then developed a more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.
Did worsfold have more talent? I think it just wasnt as evenly distributed as simpsons team
Sure that midfield was awesome but last season we had shuey and yeo who both are stars. Gaff obviously wouldve been there too.When you factor in kennedy,darling,mcgovern,hurn i think simpson had just as much talent at his disposal
Worsfold was a very limited game day coach tho ,hunter forward.thats it really
Early days and we'll see how simpson goes once kennedy and hurn retire

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Did worsfold have more talent? I think it just wasnt as evenly distributed as simpsons team
Sure that midfield was awesome but last season we had shuey and yeo who both are stars. Gaff obviously wouldve been there too.When you factor in kennedy,darling,mcgovern,hurn i think simpson had just as much talent at his disposal
Worsfold was a very limited game day coach tho ,hunter forward.thats it really
Early days and we'll see how simpson goes once kennedy and hurn retire

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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.
 

mattyc75

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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.
I agree that judd,cousins and co were heaps better than our current midfield .im not sure that the old saying that games are won in the midfield rings so true anymore

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Oct 3, 2007
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Malthouse at this stage is number 1 but he had problems backing it up. Flags are hard to win but we should of won in 93 and the players simply were not hungry.
Woosha nearly achieved back to back.
Simpson now has it in front of him.
 

Coaster90

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Malthouse at this stage is number 1 but he had problems backing it up. Flags are hard to win but we should of won in 93 and the players simply were not hungry.
Woosha nearly achieved back to back.
Simpson now has it in front of him.

I guess that begs the question, and it's early days but If Simmo does go back to back will that make him greater than Woosha?
 
May 26, 2013
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I love Simmo but we have been blessed with some really good assistant coaches over his tenor (Walsh, Pyke and Mitchell come to mind). Pyke invented the Weagles web and after he left to coach Adelaide we went to s**t. Mitchell is credited as to why our mids took the next step the past season. Now he's gone. If we play well next year, I rate him above Woosha but below Malthouse. If we go to s**t again, well, maybe we should be heaping praise on our coach recruiting staff instead.

New premiership year in the moniker, same old bullshit.
 
Just realised no other team in the competition can boast of 3 premiership coaches in the modern AFL era (I consider it post 1989).

We're spoilt to be able to have a thread like this. Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, Fremantle, Gold Coast, GWS, Melbourne, North, Port, Richmond, St Kilda, Dogs all have had either one or no premiership coaches in that time span. Collingwood, Hawthorn, Geelong and Sydney have two.
 
Oct 29, 2007
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Just realised no other team in the competition can boast of 3 premiership coaches in the modern AFL era (I consider it post 1989).

We're spoilt to be able to have a thread like this. Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, Fremantle, Gold Coast, GWS, Melbourne, North, Port, Richmond, St Kilda, Dogs all have had either one or no premiership coaches in that time span. Collingwood, Hawthorn, Geelong and Sydney have two.

Good call.

Also goes to show how underrated Vizzy and co are. Vizzy copped a lot of flack for the drugs scandal and rightly so but he stood by Woosha and let him rebuild the culture from the ground up even if it meant loosing games. Took the club 3 years and it got us to a prelim in what was a very exciting season to watch.

Things went a bit sour in 2013 but to me that was just Woosha burning out after being at the club for so long but the way the club handed it was excellent.

The club then went though a lengthy process to choose our next coach. Most clubs would have chosen a past player ( in our case that was Suma) but the club was very impressed with Simmo and they made the right call.
 

Coaster90

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Interestingly as it stands the winning percentage for premiership coaches are:

Simmo: 64.70% over 119 games
Malthouse: 64.61% over 243 games
Worsfold: 53.85% over 281 games

Just realised no other team in the competition can boast of 3 premiership coaches in the modern AFL era (I consider it post 1989).

Post 1989 every coach bar Judge has taken us to a flag. Makes me even prouder of this club.
 
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1. Malthouse
2. Simpson
3. Worsfold

Malthouse is our best premiership coach but I put Simpson ahead of Worsfold. The period between 2008-10 and 2013 is a low point. We have never finished lower than 9th under Simpson.
 
1. Malthouse
2. Simpson
3. Worsfold

Malthouse is our best premiership coach but I put Simpson ahead of Worsfold. The period between 2008-10 and 2013 is a low point. We have never finished lower than 9th under Simpson.

Would have played finals in all years under Simpson (so far) if Sydney didn't decide not to tank the last home and away game of the year in 2014 allowing Richmond to sneak in on the back of 10 straight wins.

Luckily karma got them both in the finals.
 

Ghossein

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Simmo and the coaches put a lot of work into guys like Rioli and Ryan, both physically and on the personal level. It's not a guarantee that they would've seen success at AFL level without the coaching staff.
 
I think comparing them comes down to context.

The focus on player management and welfare now means Simpson would be a much better ‘modern’ coach than Malthouse. Having said that, the fire and brimstone approach of the past that seemed to resonate with that ‘era’ of players would probably have seen Simpson’s current approach come under heavy scrutiny.

I’d have them both a rung above Woosha, as much as I loved him.
 
I think comparing them comes down to context.

The focus on player management and welfare now means Simpson would be a much better ‘modern’ coach than Malthouse. Having said that, the fire and brimstone approach of the past that seemed to resonate with that ‘era’ of players would probably have seen Simpson’s current approach come under heavy scrutiny.

I’d have them both a rung above Woosha, as much as I loved him.

Yeah the failures of coaches like Malthouse, Eade and Neeld in their last coaching jobs demonstrated fire and brimstone is an extinct coaching philosophy.
 

bombard

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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.
 

Doashuey

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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.

I think the 05-06 team could play some beautiful footy- how could they not with Cousins Judd and Kerr? But when we played the Swans it was always dour as buggery. but exciting due to the hardness and closeness of the contest.
In summary, the Swans made it ugly, but we could play ugly when it was required.
 
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.
 
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