There is shame in failure. Not every club can be the best. In 2010 West Coast was the worst, winning the club’s first wooden spoon. A proud club reduced to shambles, its culture was analysed and derided. The coach, a former player, refused to quit amidst the pressure. Spatial rival, Fremantle, won a final.
The off season was described as turmoil. West Coast’s best players were injured. The young players lacked class. Coach John Worsfold kept talking up the list, describing it as having premiership potential, the fans and sponsors had to remain patient.
At the weekend West Coast defeated Richmond comfortably. The 57-point win, hardly a surprise, was the Eagles 13th for the season and ensured they will play finals.
The comeback has been stunning. Less than a year ago the board was questioned about Worsfold’s tenure. The public backing was sniggered at. The fall had been too great, better to part ways than endure further humiliation. Premiers in 2006, the Eagles finished third in 2007 then regressed in 2008, slipping to second last. In 2009 they finished eleventh. Last year was worse, just four wins.
Mediocrity ensured a priority pick, Jack Darling at selection 26. The priority pick wasn’t supposed to make a difference, nothing was. The Eagles had been hammered by injury in 2010, Worsfold’s game plan was old fashioned. It was supposed to be a slow climb from the bottom.
Instead, Worsfold has West Coast fifth with a real chance of finishing in the top four.
At the weekend, Worsfold was one of eight men inducted into West Coast’s Hall of Fame, a fitting reward for service. The Eagles have won three premierships, with Worsfold a leader in all. His career, two premierships as captain and one as coach will become part of Eagles folklore.
Worsfold was a fierce lump of a man, uncompromising on the field and a dour, defensive coach. This season he has reinvented the club with attacking flair.
While victory over Richmond guaranteed a finals berth, it also ensured John Worsfold becomes the only coach in VFL/AFL history to lead his club to a wooden spoon then take them to the finals the following season.
That’s some achievement. Other coaches have lifted clubs from last to the finals, but they made the finals in their debut season with a new club.
Defeating Richmond also ensures West Coast is just the seventh team in VFL/AFL history to finish last then make the finals the following season. The table below shows the year those clubs won the wooden spoon and where they finished the next season.
| Club | Year | Finish | Coach |
| Essendon | 1921 | 3rd | Syd Barker |
| South Melbourne | 1922 | 3rd | Charlie Pannam |
| Collingwood | 1976 | 2nd | Tom Hafey |
| Fitzroy | 1980 | 4th | Robert Walls |
| Melbourne | 1997 | 4th | Neale Daniher |
| Brisbane | 1998 | 4th | Leigh Matthews |
| West Coast | 2010 | John Worsfold |
Given just seven clubs in 115 seasons have come back from calamity, the accolades Worsfold is getting are fair. Significantly though, no club in the game’s history has won the premiership the year following a wooden spoon. Of the list above, Collingwood is the only club to finish on top after a spoon and they’re the only club to play in the grand final.
Only two clubs from the list above, Essendon in 1924 and Brisbane in 2001, won the premiership within three years of winning the spoon.
History is sobering, a guide to rail against and although West Coast is playing good football in 2011, no one seriously believes they’ll win the premiership. AFL fairytales can’t be that saccharine. Rebuilding in any era generally takes more than one season, often five or more.
To win the premiership, the Eagles have to defeat history. They’ll have to do something dramatic to beat Collingwood or Geelong. Worsfold, in his quietest moments, would believe the challenge is tough.
Last year, when the Eagles bottomed out, there was scant sympathy. Many people thought the Eagles got what they deserved. Few clubs would condone or miss the level of drug abuse, friendships with criminals and blatant disregard for the game. The descent was karma.
Through seasons 2009 and 2010, Worsfold reportedly spent an equal amount of time on changing the club’s culture as he did on the game plan. The 2011 preseason was the first in two years he could concentrate solely on developing a game plan to press and to beat the press. The drug scandals, party culture and other unforgivable incidents are now remembered for their infamy, not as a disruption.
Worsfold’s retention proves how talented premiership coaches can be, especially when the club doesn’t panic. To go from last to the finals is rare. All involved need be congratulated. The draft is about equalisation, but it’s supposed to be at a toddler’s pace, learn to walk, learn to talk and learn to fend before learning to fight.
Back in 1976, Tom Hafey was sacked as Richmond’s coach. In 1977 he took Collingwood from last to first, winning eighteen games in his first season. Though the Magpies didn’t win the premiership, his was one of the greatest coaching performances in the history of the game. Premierships aside, no one has surpassed Hafey for his ability to flip a club all the way back from bottom to top.
History, though, tends to hate Collingwood, and the reputed magic of Ron Barassi inspired North Melbourne to win the 1977 premiership. Hafey will possibly remain the only VFL/AFL coach to lead his club in two grand finals the year following a wooden spoon.
Worsfold won’t match Tom Hafey’s performance of 1977, but he’s achieved something no other coach has ever done. Throughout history coaches have been sacked mid season following a big loss. Others have been sacked for finishing last. Worsfold wasn’t. He went last and now his club is in the finals.
At the end of 2010, Worsfold, with one year left on his contract, was touted as a man about to be sacked. That he wasn’t simply meant the Eagles were honouring the contract of a club legend, he’d be let go at the end of 2011 with no hard feelings and the club would rebuild under another coach.
Less than a year later Worsfold has created a record unique to the game.
As a player, Worsfold was hard at the man and the ball. As a coach, he’s being hard on history.
Pride Cup results
| 117 | James (6), Dave (7), Anne (6) |
| 116 | Russ (6) |
| 114 | Stevo (6), Matt (6) |
| 112 | Sandra (8) |
| 110 | Andy (7) |
| 109 | Matt B (7) |
| 108 | Adam L (5), Adam G (7) |
| 107 | Eric (5) |
| 106 | Jim (6), Graeme (6) |
| 104 | Dallas (7), Wayne (5), Paul (6) |
| 98 | George (7) |
