John Richard Worsfold (born 25 September 1968) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

coach and player. He was the senior coach of the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL) between October 2015 and September 2020. He previously had a long association with the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

as player (1987–1998) and coach (2002–2013), captaining the club to premierships in 1992 and 1994 and coaching the club to a premiership in 2006. Worsfold began his career with the

South Fremantle Football Club South Fremantle Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Fremantle, Western Australia. The club plays in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the WAFL Women's (WAFLW), commonly going by the nickname the ''Bulldogs ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WAFL), before being named an inaugural squad member of West Coast on their formation in 1986. After winning the club's best and fairest award in 1988, he was appointed the captain of the club in 1991, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1998. During his period at the club, Worsfold played in 209 games, which including the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

premiership sides. During this time, he also appeared in five

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

matches for Western Australia, including captaining his state twice. In 2000, two years after his retirement from playing, Worsfold joined as an assistant coach, remaining in this position until the end of the 2001 season, when he was appointed senior coach of West Coast in place of Ken Judge. Worsfold coached the club in eight

finals series Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, including the 2006 premiership. In 2010, he coached West Coast to its first

wooden spoon Wooden Spoon may refer to: * Wooden spoon, implement * Wooden spoon (award) A wooden spoon is an award that is given to an individual or team that has come last in a competition. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous e ...

, but the following season the team finished fourth, with Worsfold receiving the AFLCA Coach of the Year Award for the second time. He coached West Coast in a club record 274 games before resigning at the end of the 2013 season. He was named an inaugural inductee into the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise and enshrine those who have made a significant contribution to Australian rules football in Western Australia. People eligible for inclusion are players, coaches, umpires, ...

in 2004 and the John Worsfold Medal is named in his honour. After a two-year absence from coaching, Worsfold was appointed senior coach of on 5 October 2015. He handed over to his assistant

Ben Rutten Benjamin Rutten (born 28 May 1983) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He was the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) in 2021 and 2022. As a player, he played for the Adelaid ...

at the end of the 2020 season as part of a planned transition.

Early life

Born in Subiaco, – West Australian Football Commission. Retrieved 20 May 2012. and growing up in the southern suburbs of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia, Worsfold attended

South Fremantle Senior High School South Fremantle Senior High School (SFSHS) is a former comprehensive public co-educational high day school, that was located in Beaconsfield, south-east of Fremantle in the south-western suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. The school ope ...

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...

, graduating in 1985.

Playing career

Worsfold fell into the

's recruitment zone, he played in the club's underage teams, and also played in the

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

under-18 team that won the state's first

Teal Cup The AFL Under-19 Championships (for sponsorship reasons, the NAB AFL Under-19 Championships) is an annual Australian national underage representative championship in Australian rules football tournament. It is seen as one of the main pathways ...

in 1985. – Celebrity Speakers. Retrieved 20 May 2012. Worsfold made his senior WAFL debut for South Fremantle in 1986, and played a total of 19 games in his debut season, leading him to be awarded the Rookie of the Year award by the '' Daily News''. At South Fremantle, he also won "Player of the Future" and "Best First Year Player" awards in 1985 and 1986, respectively.

West Coast Eagles

In October 1986, Worsfold was named as a member of the

' inaugural 32-man squad. He made his senior debut for the club in round four of the 1987 season, against at Princes Park. Worsfold played a total of 11 games in the club's inaugural season and also played five games in the WAFL for South Fremantle. – AFLTables. Retrieved 20 May 2012. The following season, he cemented his role in the side playing every game except for two games missed due to suspension in rounds nine and ten. At the end of the season, Worsfold was awarded the Club Champion Award as West Coast's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

, winning by ten votes from runner-up

Guy McKenna Guy Lindsay McKenna (born 11 May 1969) is a retired Australian rules football player and the former senior coach of the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). McKenna played 267 games for the West Coast Eagles, includi ...

. He was also awarded a total of five votes in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

for the best player in the competition, including two votes for 30-disposal and 28-disposal games against and . Worsfold played in his first

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

match at the conclusion of the 1988 season, a two-point loss to at

Waverley Park Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football ...

. Worsfold led West Coast in disposals, kicks, and tackles in 1988. Worsfold had similar seasons in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. Having been appointed vice-captain prior to the start of the 1989 season, he took on greater leadership roles under the influence of new coach

Michael Malthouse Michael Raymond Malthouse (born 17 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After finishing his playing career, Maltho ...

. After the club's loss in the qualifying final to , captain

Steve Malaxos Stephen "Steve" Malaxos (born 19 June 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach from Western Australia. While playing for Claremont in the WAFL, he won the 1984 Sandover Medal. Malaxos was an All-Australian with Claremont in 198 ...

was dropped from the side for the preliminary final, with Worsfold appointed captain in his place. Moving from a midfield role to a half-back flank in 1991, Worsfold was officially made club captain and played a total of 21 games, including the loss in the 1991 Grand Final to . Worsfold captained the club to premierships in

and

, and retired at the end of the 1998 season, having played 209 games for the club.

Playing style

Worsfold began his career as a midfielder but moved to a position on the half-back flank later in his career, where he played most of his football. Considered one of the club's toughest and most courageous players, he was suspended twice in his career, both times for striking. Worsfold was named on a half-back flank in West Coast's " Team of the Decade" in 1996, and in the same position in teams named for the 20-year and 25-year anniversaries of the club's first season. He was an inaugural inductee into the

in 2004, and an inaugural inductee into the West Coast Eagles Hall of Fame in 2011. The

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

's selection process has been criticised for precluding Worsfold's induction, as the Hall of Fame prohibits selectors from considering a person based on a combination of their playing and coaching careers. A function room at

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the high ...

, the John Worsfold Room was also named after Worsfold.

Post-Playing career and Channel 7 commentator

For the first year after the end of his playing career, Worsfold worked as a commentator with Channel 7.

Coaching career

Carlton Football Club assistant coach (2000-2001)

At the end of 1999, Worsfold confirmed that he was interested in coaching and that he was willing to move away from Perth in order to do so. He was subsequently offered a full-time assistant coaching position at both West Coast and , and was at one stage considered a possible candidate to coach following

Gary Ayres Gary James Ayres (born 28 September 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is currently the senior coach for the Montrose Football Club in the Eastern F ...

' decision to leave the club to coach . Worsfold also interviewed for the vacant senior coaching position at , along with Chris Connolly,

Mark Harvey Mark Harvey (born 11 June 1965) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He played over 200 games during fourteen seasons with the Essendon Football Club, winning three premierships, and was senior coach of Fremantle from 2007 t ...

, and

Peter Schwab Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, but was turned down in favour of Schwab. Worsfold finally signed a three-year contract to serve as an assistant coach at . He had also been in contention for the position of senior coach at but declined to be interviewed after accepting the role at Carlton. Worsfold's appointment was controversial; Carlton's president John Elliott officially confirmed Worsfold had been engaged as assistant coach on '' The Footy Show'', two days before the club was due to play in a preliminary final. Carlton's senior coach

David Parkin David Alex Parkin, OAM (born 12 September 1942) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the Subiaco Football Club in the Western Australian Na ...

suggested the appointment had come "out of the blue", and it was later reported that he had threatened to quit as a result of the club's lack of consultation. His coaching career started in 2000 at

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Mel ...

as an assistant coach under senior coach

and then under senior coach

Wayne Brittain Wayne Brittain (born 13 June 1958) is a former coach of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Career Playing career In his playing career, Brittain played for Zillmere Eagles in the Queensland State League. He ...

in 2001. In the 2000 season, As part of a restructure of Carlton's coaching panel, Parkin moved to more of an overseeing role, with his senior assistant coach,

, given a greater role. Under this structure, Worsfold was given responsibility for coaching the defence, including formulating the club's

kick-in In the sport of Australian rules football, a kick-in (sometimes known as a kick-out, and known for much of the game's history as a kick-off) is the common name for the procedure to restart the game after a behind. It involves a defender from t ...

strategy. At the end of the 2000 season, with Carlton having lost to in a preliminary final, Parkin retired as senior coach, and was replaced by Brittain. Having maintained his role as a defensive coach under Brittain, Worsfold was again considered a strong candidate for several other clubs' vacant senior coaching positions during (and at the conclusion of) the 2001 season. After

Damian Drum Damian Kevin Drum (born 28 July 1960) is an Australian politician who has represented Murray and Nicholls in the Australian House of Representatives since the 2016 federal election as a member of The Nationals. Drum served as the Assistant Mi ...

's sacking as senior coach of Fremantle midway through the season, Worsfold was approached to interview for the position, but refused, stating a desire to wait until the end of the season. He also stated in his interest in the position at , which was eventually filled by Grant Thomas, who had been serving as caretaker senior coach. After Carlton's season ended with a semi-final loss to , Worsfold interviewed with both Fremantle and his old playing club, West Coast, who had sacked Ken Judge. He was considered likely to take up the position at Fremantle, with

Neil Craig Neil Passmore Craig (born 11 January 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Norwood Football Club, Sturt Football Club and the North Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He ...

considered a favourite to coach West Coast, but eventually leveraged his status at Fremantle into securing the West Coast position.

West Coast Eagles senior coach (2002-2013)

Worsfold went to apply for the senior coaching roles at both

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

at the end of the 2001 season. Eventually, he was appointed to the senior coaching role at

, when he replaced Ken Judge, who was sacked as West Coast Eagles senior coach at the end of the 2001 season. Worsfold was appointed coach to the club he had formerly played for, where he achieved some level of immediate success, taking the club back to the finals in his first season. After a string of early finals exits in 2002, 2003 and 2004, Worsfold finally took the club to the

2005 AFL Grand Final The 2005 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual grand final of the Australian Football League ...

, where the Eagles were narrowly defeated by the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

by a margin of four points with the final score Sydney Swans 8.10 (58) to West Coast Eagles 7.12 (54). In the 2006 season, the club finished on top of the ladder after the home and away series, and followed it up with a win in the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austral ...

, when West Coast Eagles defeated the

, this time the margin being a solitary point with the final score West Coast Eagles 12.13 (85) to Sydney Swans 12.12 (84). In doing so, Worsfold became only the fourth person in the history of the

AFL/VFL The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...

to both captain and later coach the same club to an AFL premiership and the first at the West Coast Eagles. In the 2007 season, West Coast finished third on the ladder. They lost to Port Adelaide in the qualifying final then they got eliminated by Collingwood in the semi final. The 2008 season was not as successful for Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles. With the loss of players Chris Judd and Ben Cousins, West Coast went from third to fifteenth, finishing with four wins and eighteen losses and the lowest percentage in the club's history. In the 2009 season, Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles Football Club made an improvement, finishing eleventh on the ladder with eight wins and fourteen losses. The 2010 season brought in another low point of Worsfold's coaching career with the

completing a spectacular fall from grace and receiving the wooden spoon, winning just four games; two against and one each against and . Injuries and poor form plagued the Eagles' 2010 season, though their overall record was not as bad as in 2008. Worsfold became the fourth man after

Reg Hickey Reginald Joseph Hickey (27 March 1906 – 13 December 1973) was an Australian rules footballer who was a player, the captain, the captain-coach, and the non-playing coach for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) ...

Charlie Sutton Charlie Sutton (3 April 1924 – 5 June 2012) was an Australian rules footballer who represented in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Although he served the club for many years as coach and committee man, he is perhaps best known for ...

and Tony Jewell to coach the same club to both a premiership and a wooden spoon. However in the 2011 season, the Eagles were back in the finals, finishing 4th at the end of the home and away season and losing a preliminary final against eventual premiers . After the club's top-four finish, Worsfold signed a two-year extension to his contract in October 2011. In the 2012 season, West Coast under Worsfold made the finals again, but were eliminated by Collingwood in the semi-final. At the conclusion of round ten of the 2012 season, Worsfold passed Mick Malthouse's record for the most games coached at West Coast. On 5 September 2013, after a disappointing 2013 season for the Eagles, who finished in 13th place on the AFL ladder, Worsfold then stepped down as the senior coach of the West Coast Eagles. Worsfold was then replaced by

Adam Simpson Adam Simpson (born 16 February 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer who is the current premiership coach of the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). A left-footed midfielder, his playing career for spanned fro ...

as West Coast Eagles senior coach. In his 11 years with the club, Worsfold coached 281 games for the West Coast Eagles, achieving 149 wins, 2 draws and 130 losses, for a winning percentage of 53.38%. After the death of a close friend, the coach Phil Walsh in July 2015, Worsford took an assistant coaching role for the Adelaide Crows.

Essendon Football Club senior coach (2016-2020)

On 5 October 2015, Worsfold was appointed as the senior coach of the

. He signed a three-year contract, replacing caretaker senior coach Matthew Egan, who replaced

James Hird James Albert Hird (born 4 February 1973) is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Hird played as a midfielder and half-forward, but h ...

after Hird resigned during the 2015 season. His first season in the 2016 season at the club proved to be a difficult one, with twelve senior players, including then-captain

Jobe Watson Jobe Watson (born 8 February 1985) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Watson, the son of three-time Essendon premiership champion Tim Watson, w ...

and vice-captain

Dyson Heppell Dyson Heppell (born 14 May 1992) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Heppell won the AFL Rising Star award in his first season in 2011, and won a Crich ...

, receiving suspensions for the 2016 season, as a consequence of Essendon's 2013 doping scandal. Due to this, the club finished on the bottom of the ladder for the first time since 1933, and Worsfold claimed his second wooden spoon as a coach. However, he would take the Bombers back to the finals in the 2017 season, where they suffered a 65-point elimination final defeat at the hands of the

at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

. In the 2018 season Worsfold took Essendon to finish eleventh on the ladder, missing out of the finals with ten wins and twelve losses. In the 2019 season, Worsfold took Essendon back into the finals again, where they were eliminated by his old side the

in the elimination final. Then at the conclusion of the 2019 season, On 17 September 2019, it was announced that Essendon assistant coach

would succeed Worsfold as the senior coach of at the conclusion of the 2020 season. However in the 2020 season, Essendon's on-field performance under Worsfold, in his final year as senior coach dropped when the club finished thirteenth on the ladder with six wins and ten losses, therefore missing out of the finals. Then at the conclusion of the 2020 season, Worsfold handed over the coaching reins to his assistant coach Rutten as part of the planned transition.

Coaching style

In an era where most coaches had implemented "the flood" defence by having their players zone back, Worsfold maintained a man-on-man style of game for his

team during the mid-2000s. While this led West Coast to much success in the home and away season, finishing second and first after the home and away rounds in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

respectively, the strategy, or rather the inflexibility from this strategy also led to criticism at times. Firstly, teams such as the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

and

were perceived to exploit West Coast's macro-positioning. However, the most notable example of this criticism came after the qualifying final against

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 2006. However, West Coast did proceed to defeat Sydney in the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

three weeks later. The 2009 season had seen Worsfold and his coaching department implement the use of both zone defence and man-on-man strategy depending on the situation.

Statistics

Playing statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 11 , , 1 , , 0 , , 87 , , 42 , , 129 , , 29 , , 20 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 7.9 , , 3.8 , , 11.7 , , 2.6 , , 1.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 21 , , 4 , , 7 , , 331 , , 135 , , 466 , , 120 , , 40 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 15.8 , , 6.4 , , 22.2 , , 5.7 , , 1.9 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 20 , , 6 , , 5 , , 258 , , 127 , , 385 , , 101 , , 44 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 12.9 , , 6.4 , , 19.3 , , 5.1 , , 2.2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 23 , , 1 , , 2 , , 218 , , 152 , , 370 , , 76 , , 45 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 9.5 , , 6.6 , , 16.1 , , 3.3 , , 2.0 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 21 , , 1 , , 0 , , 186 , , 130 , , 316 , , 56 , , 31 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 8.9 , , 6.2 , , 15.0 , , 2.7 , , 1.5 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 22 , , 1 , , 2 , , 177 , , 117 , , 294 , , 64 , , 47 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 8.0 , , 5.3 , , 13.4 , , 2.9 , , 2.1 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 19 , , 6 , , 2 , , 197 , , 119 , , 316 , , 56 , , 32 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 10.4 , , 6.3 , , 16.6 , , 2.9 , , 1.7 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 19 , , 2 , , 3 , , 127 , , 116 , , 243 , , 41 , , 41 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 6.7 , , 6.1 , , 12.8 , , 2.2 , , 2.2 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 20 , , 13 , , 2 , , 118 , , 105 , , 223 , , 37 , , 27 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 5.9 , , 5.3 , , 11.2 , , 1.9 , , 1.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 9 , , 11 , , 20 , , 6 , , 0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 4.5 , , 5.5 , , 10.0 , , 3.0 , , 0.0 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 14 , , 0 , , 0 , , 80 , , 68 , , 148 , , 35 , , 16 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.7 , , 4.9 , , 10.6 , , 2.5 , , 1.2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 24 , , 17 , , 2 , , 3 , , 96 , , 68 , , 164 , , 46 , , 21 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 5.6 , , 4.0 , , 9.6 , , 2.7 , , 1.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 209 ! 37 ! 26 ! 1884 ! 1190 ! 3074 ! 667 ! 364 ! 0.2 ! 0.1 ! 9.0 ! 5.7 ! 14.7 ! 3.2 ! 1.7

Coaching statistics

:''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2019 season'' , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, , 23 , , 11 , , 12 , , 0 , , 47.8% , , 8 , , 16 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, , 23 , , 12 , , 9 , , 2 , , 56.5% , , 7 , , 16 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, , 23 , , 13 , , 10 , , 0 , , 56.5% , , 7 , , 16 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

, , 25 , , 19 , , 6 , , 0 , , 76.0% , , 2 , , 16 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , , 26 , , 20 , , 6 , , 0 , , 76.9% , , 1 , , 16 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, , 24 , , 15 , , 9 , , 0 , , 62.5% , , 3 , , 16 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, , 22 , , 4 , , 18 , , 0 , , 18.2% , , 15 , , 16 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, , 22 , , 8 , , 14 , , 0 , , 36.4% , , 11 , , 16 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, , 22 , , 4 , , 18 , , 0 , , 18.2% , , 16 , , 16 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, , 25 , , 18 , , 7 , , 0 , , 72.0% , , 4 , , 17 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , 24 , , 16 , , 8 , , 0 , , 66.7% , , 5 , , 18 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 22 , , 9 , , 13 , , 0 , , 40.9% , , 13 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, , 22 , , 3 , , 19 , , 0 , , 13.6% , , 18 , , 18 , - ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, , 23 , , 12 , , 11 , , 0 , , 52.2% , , 7 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, , 22 , , 12 , , 10 , , 0 , , 54.4% , , 11 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, , 23 , , 12 , , 11 , , 0 , , 54.2% , , 8 , , 18 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=2, Career totals ! 348 ! 188 ! 181 ! 2 ! 50.6% ! colspan=2,

Honours and achievements

Playing honours

Team * VFL/AFL Premiership (

( C),

( C) *

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...

(

( C),

( C) Individual * West Coast Club Champion Award (later named the John Worsfold Medal): 1988 * West Coast – Best Clubman Award: 1993, 1998 *

State of Origin Captain: 1992-1993 * WAFL Rookie of the Year Award: 1986 * South Fremantle F.C. – Best First Year Player Award: 1986 * Western Australia – Under 18 Team: 1985 * West Coast Captain: 1991-1998 * West Australian Hall of Fame Inductee: 2004

Coaching honours

Team * VFL/AFL Premiership (

(

Individual * Jock McHale Medal: 2006 *

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

*AFLCA Coach of the Year Award: 2006, 2011

Personal life

Worsfold married his wife, Georgina, in 1994, with whom he has three children: Sophie, Charlie, and Grace. Outside of football, he completed a

Bachelor of Pharmacy A Bachelor of Pharmacy (abbreviated B Pharm or PharmB or BS Pharm) is a graduate academic degree in the field of pharmacy. In many countries, this degree is a prerequisite for registration to practice as a pharmacist. Since both PharmB and Phar ...

at the

Curtin University of Technology Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

in 1989, and later worked as a pharmacist for an amount of time.. Retrieved 13 March 2006. In 2009, Worsfold completed a course at

INSEAD INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...

, a business administration school in

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...

, France. and occasionally works as a motivational speaker. Worsfold's younger brother,

Peter Worsfold Peter Michael Worsfold (born 11 July 1970) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Brisbane Bears in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the early 1990s. Playing career A Western Australian, Worsfold was taken by B ...

, played 31 games for the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/A ...

, and later captained South Fremantle. – ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' online. Published 29 December 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Worsfold, John 1968 births Living people All-Australian coaches South Fremantle Football Club players John Worsfold Medal winners West Coast Eagles coaches West Coast Eagles Premiership coaches West Coast Eagles players West Coast Eagles Premiership players Western Australian State of Origin players West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees INSEAD alumni Australian pharmacists Curtin University alumni Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia Australia international rules football team players Essendon Football Club coaches Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership coaches