Woosha to ponder future at season's end
West Coast coach John Worsfold hasn't ruled out walking away from the job at the end of this AFL season, despite believing his fledgling squad is on track to achieve long-term success.
Worsfold, who coached West Coast to the 2006 premiership, is in the final year of his contract and under massive pressure following three straight seasons out of the finals.
The Eagles won just four games on the way to their first ever wooden spoon last year but Worsfold was left far from disheartened, believing the current players have the talent to become a premiership threat.
And despite insisting his hunger and passion remain as strong as ever, Worsfold floated the possibility of handing over the reins.
"Right now I don't think there would be a better fit (than me being coach of the club)," Worsfold told AAP.
"Hopefully at the end of the year we can show it was a good fit and at the end of this year say 'righto, well, what's the next step?'
"I'm out of contract, so the club has the opportunity to sit down and say 'what's the next step, what's the next one, two, five-year plan regarding the coach and overall directions?'
"I have to do the same for myself, sit down and say what's the next direction.
"Is it commit to this group that are a core group of players that are going to play together for the next seven, eight years - do I want to be part of that?
"Or is it time to say maybe they need another coach to come in and take them through the steps they are going to go through to win a premiership?"
New president Alan Cransberg has guaranteed Worsfold will see out the season.
And while Worsfold has been told what he needs to achieve in order to earn a new contract, the 42-year-old doesn't want to make it public.
"They're fairly clear on what they're looking for, and I'm clear on what they're looking for and I'm confident I can deliver on it," said Worsfold, who captained West Coast to the 1992 and '94 flags during his decorated 209-game playing career.
"They expect more than five wins, put it that way."
Worsfold said natural improvement in youngsters such as Chris Masten, Brad Ebert, Brad Sheppard, Nic Naitanui, Scott Selwood, Tom Swift and Luke Shuey would lift the club back up the table.
"If you ask all the experts, the guys who study it ... they're probably not predicting us to finish too high," Worsfold said.
"Why is that? Is that because they look at it and they say we don't have the talent or the experience?
"I'm not sure. But I think it's realistic for us to outperform their expectations.
"Our aim is to perform a lot better than last year, show the fans that we've got the talent to keep climbing the ladder."
West Coast kick off the season against North Melbourne at Patersons Stadium on March 27, with winnable games against Port Adelaide (away) and Sydney (home) to follow.
Post a comment about this article
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.