40 Facts About John Worsfold

John Richard Worsfold was born on 25 September 1968 and is a former Australian rules football coach and player.

John Worsfold was the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League between October 2015 and September 2020.

John Worsfold previously had a long association with the West Coast Eagles as player and coach, captaining the club to premierships in 1992 and 1994 and coaching the club to a premiership in 2006.

In 2000, two years after his retirement from playing, John Worsfold joined Carlton 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.

John Worsfold coached the club in eight finals series, including the 2006 premiership.

In 2010, he coached West Coast to its first wooden spoon, but the following season the team finished fourth, with John Worsfold receiving the AFLCA Coach of the Year Award for the second time.

John Worsfold coached West Coast in a club record 274 games before resigning at the end of the 2013 season.

John Worsfold was named an inaugural inductee into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004 and the John Worsfold Medal is named in his honour.

John Worsfold handed over to his assistant Ben Rutten at the end of the 2020 season as part of a planned transition.

John Worsfold fell into the South Fremantle Football Club's recruitment zone, he played in the club's underage teams, and played in the Western Australia under-18 team that won the state's first Teal Cup in 1985.

John 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.

In October 1986, John Worsfold was named as a member of the West Coast Eagles' inaugural 32-man squad.

John Worsfold made his senior debut for the club in round four of the 1987 season, against Carlton at Princes Park.

John Worsfold played a total of 11 games in the club's inaugural season and played five games in the WAFL for South Fremantle.

John Worsfold was awarded a total of five votes in the Brownlow Medal for the best player in the competition, including two votes for 30-disposal and 28-disposal games against Essendon and Melbourne.

John Worsfold played in his first finals match at the conclusion of the 1988 season, a two-point loss to Melbourne at Waverley Park.

John Worsfold led West Coast in disposals, kicks, and tackles in 1988.

John Worsfold captained the club to premierships in 1992 and 1994, and retired at the end of the 1998 season, having played 209 games for the club.

John 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.

John 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.

John Worsfold was an inaugural inductee into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004, and an inaugural inductee into the West Coast Eagles Hall of Fame in 2011.

John Worsfold will have many of the perceived qualifications of a senior coach: premierships as a player, a tough guy with peer respect, brains and, crucially, he will have played under and assisted two big-name coaches in Mick Malthouse and David Parkin.

John Worsfold was offered a full-time assistant coaching position at both West Coast and Fremantle, and was at one stage considered a possible candidate to coach Geelong following Gary Ayres' decision to leave the club to coach Adelaide.

John Worsfold interviewed for the vacant senior coaching position at Hawthorn, along with Chris Connolly, Mark Harvey, and Peter Schwab, but was turned down in favour of Schwab.

John Worsfold finally signed a three-year contract to serve as an assistant coach at Carlton.

John Worsfold had been in contention for the position of senior coach at Richmond but declined to be interviewed after accepting the role at Carlton.

John Worsfold's coaching career started in 2000 at Carlton Football Club as an assistant coach under senior coach David Parkin and then under senior coach Wayne Brittain in 2001.

Under this structure, John Worsfold was given responsibility for coaching the defence, including formulating the club's kick-in strategy.

John Worsfold stated in his interest in the position at St Kilda, which was eventually filled by Grant Thomas, who had been serving as caretaker senior coach.

John Worsfold was considered likely to take up the position at Fremantle, with Neil Craig considered a favourite to coach West Coast, but eventually leveraged his status at Fremantle into securing the West Coast position.

John Worsfold went to apply for the senior coaching roles at both West Coast and Fremantle at the end of the 2001 season.

John 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.

The 2010 season brought in another low point of John Worsfold's coaching career with the West Coast Eagles completing a spectacular fall from grace and receiving the wooden spoon, winning just four games; two against Essendon and one each against Hawthorn and Melbourne.

John Worsfold became the fourth man after Reg Hickey, Charlie Sutton and Tony Jewell to coach the same club to both a premiership and a wooden spoon.

On 5 September 2013, after a disappointing 2013 season for the Eagles, who finished in 13th place on the AFL ladder, John Worsfold then stepped down as the senior coach of the West Coast Eagles.

John Worsfold was then replaced by Adam Simpson as West Coast Eagles senior coach.

On 5 October 2015, John Worsfold was appointed as the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club.

John Worsfold signed a three-year contract, replacing caretaker senior coach Matthew Egan, who replaced James Hird after Hird resigned during the 2015 season.

John Worsfold married his wife, Georgina, in 1994, with whom he has three children: Sophie, Charlie, and Grace.

In 2009, John Worsfold completed a course at INSEAD, a business administration school in Fontainebleau, France.