geez i think it a bit of a myth about ow good the wce press is.
in 2010 they won only 4 games. apart from another 4 games they were in the hunt at 3/4 time only to fall away.in other words they were mostly competetive.
the thing that improved dramatically was turnovers. they could not string a passage of play together in 2010 without making an error. they were easily the most mistake riddled side in the comp by a long long margin. worse than any richmond side in the past.
with their mature players good structure and experience. with some kids stepping up and some ready made recruits they only needed to fix the turnovers to dramatically improve.
people have no idea how close worsfold came to the chop and rightly so. for me many many wce sides under worsfold including the premiership one of 2006 had way too many turn over merchants. they have always had big bodies good height and a sprinkling of v/good players that has always seen them be competetive apart from two very short periods.
people should not forget about 14 players are still there from their premiership yr any club that fails as badly as wce did in 2010 with that sort of nucleus has underachieved.
Everyone knew how close he was, before the season started a mate of mine had a crack at his press conference announcing his departure (he thought r13)!
Their press at Etihad against Carlton was effing incredible and a highlight for the year. The applied the press consistently well and as the Ghost says in that interview, it puts pressure on the defensive kick out of d50 or into f50. You cannot have watched many eagles games to post that comment.
Since 2007, they have finished 15,11 and 16th. That is a fair run of so called bad luck, I hope you loaded up on the $20+ they were being offered for a top 4 finish at the start of last year Einstein.
all i can say is we will have to agree to disagree. i backed em to make finals in 09. their preliminary final side that lost to geelong this yr contained just two new faces from the core that played in 09. gaff and darling.
they have had a horror run with injuries including 07 at the wrong time, right thru to 2010.
they basically lost cousins judd, and kerr injuries for 08 thats like us losing cotchin martin and deledio. to add to it the next tier mids copped their fair share of injury including newbies. they played with a very ordinary shallow midfield group for 08 and no wonder they finished where they did.
i thought they would bounce back in 09 and imo they were mostly competetive but injuries and that old bug bear turnovers crucified them again.
like i said we will have to agree to disagree. ive already said the development of decent game plan ie the press helped in 2011 but the single biggest improvement with them was the elimination of turnovers which the press helped to a degree. in 2010 they could not string together 3 passes, unless this area improved they were not going to implement anything no matter how hard they tried or what they implemented.
for the record while hes a premiership coach i dont think worsfold a good coach at all. take that as you will.
in 05 gf they really dominated thru midfield but that old bug bear turnovers killed em.
they fell over the line in 06 with a dominant midfield and nearly lost to that bug bear turnovers.
even when near the bottom of the ladder for a brief stint they have always always had good structure and good size. but under worsfold they have been one dimensional and poorly skilled. i dont think he worsfold has ever got the balance right.
