Worsfold plays down spat with Hardie - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Worsfold plays down spat with Hardie

By Justin Chadwick 24/06/2008 07:47:49 PM Comments (0)

West Coast coach John Worsfold has played down Monday night's ugly on-air spat with Brad Hardie, saying he did not mean to question the AFL Brownlow Medallist's character.

Speaking on Perth radio, Worsfold angrily lashed out when Hardie criticised West Coast's tactics and team selection in the wake of the club's humiliating 135-point loss to Geelong.

Worsfold told Hardie he was building a team that would be capable of premiership success and that it "takes special character to be part of a premiership team, unfortunately you weren't".

When Hardie, who played in a WAFL premiership with South Fremantle but never tasted ultimate glory in the AFL, said: "We got to a prelim ... I died trying with the Bulldogs in 85;". Worsfold replied: "I would question that."

But Worsfold's temperament had cooled by Tuesday morning, saying he held no grudge against Hardie.

"He's got every right to question team selection," Worsfold said at his weekly press conference.

"He seemed to have the answers. I asked him what the answers were. I was keen to see what he was thinking.

"My point is that players get labelled as premiership players and then they carry that tag, so if you said is Brad Hardie a better footballer than players who are premiership players - I'm sure he is.

"You don't have to be a great player to be a premiership player. You can be a great player without being a premiership player.

"There's a lot of people who don't play in premierships, but I believe to be a part of a premiership team you have to have good character.

"Players that unfortunately don't get the opportunity to be part of premierships, I'm not saying anything about them, but they don't really understand because they haven't been part of a premiership side.

"I just found it interesting that Brad Hardie would question my ability to build a team to win a premiership when he doesn't know what's part of that team because he hasn't been in one.

"I don't hold any grudges to Brad, I think he does a very good job as a commentator creating storms and all those sorts of things that he's paid to do."

Meanwhile, Worsfold ruled out making drastic changes for Friday night's clash with Hawthorn at the MCG.

"We are in a position where we can't make massive changes because we don't have a lot of players available," he said.

Tagger Adam Selwood is a chance to play despite spending Saturday night in hospital with a throat injury, while Jaymie Graham, Brent Staker, Jamie McNamara, Mark Seaby and Steven Armstrong are in line for a recall.

But Chad Fletcher is facing another stint in the WAFL following his error-riddled performance against the Cats.

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