Prospector! New Rank! Jack Worell!

[Master Q]

I made a thread in the coaches forum, chat there.

John "Jack" Worrall (20 June 1861 â€" 17 November 1937) was an Australian rules footballer for Fitzroy in the VFA and a test cricketer, a coach of both sports and a sporting journalist.

A small, nuggety man with broad shoulders, pink complexion and intense brown eyes, Worrall was one of Australia's great all-round sports people of the nineteenth century, and was involved in Australian football and cricket at the elite level for many decades.

After his retirement, he coached both sports, and is considered the "father" of Australian football coaching. Worrall had an extended career as a sporting journalist, and he was a highly respected member of the press box right up until his death in 1937. He was no stranger to conflict, and his forthright manner embroiled him in a number of sporting controversies throughout his lifetime.

The First Coach
In 1902, Worrall, secretary of the Carlton Cricket Club, was appointed to the same role with the football club. Hitherto, Australian footballers were prepared in an ad hoc way.

Worrall immediately set about leading training sessions, instructing players, formulating tactics and recruiting talent in a manner that created the role of club coach that is recognised today. Carlton's rapid improvement encouraged other VFL clubs to appoint a coach, and these men used Worrall as their role model.

Worrall continually turned over players in an effort to find the right combination for success. Eventually, he developed a big, strong team that favoured long kicking and liked to close up the game, forming packs and using their physical strength in the crushes. Fitness was a priority for Worrall: he ensured that his team trained harder than the opposition.

This success was followed up by winning the next two premierships, the first hat-trick success by a club in the VFL. The 1908 performance was the highlight of Worrall's coaching career. The Blues lost only one game (by five points on a very muddy ground against Essendon) for the year, a record equalled but never beaten subsequently in VFL/AFL history.

After a season spent employed by the VFL as the umpires' coach, Worrall was recruited by Essendon. Here, he took a talented but previously under-performing team to a premiership in his first season. The next year, 1912, an injury-ravaged Essendon team somehow managed to upset hot favourites South Melbourne in the Grand Final.

Over five completed seasons, Worrall had now coached five premiership teams. But the team declined rapidly thereafter and went into recess in 1916-1917, due to World War I. Performances failed to improve when the Same Old returned to competition, winning only fifteen out of 46 games between 1918 and 1920, prompting Worrall's retirement. The team finished last in 1918, and Worrall became the first man to coach both a premiership and a wooden-spoon team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Worrall