Battling Blues get all-star assistance

CARLTON coach David Teague likes the way John Worsfold “challenges the way I think” and has welcomed the premiership winner joining the Blues as a coaching mentor.

Worsfold, the former Essendon and West Coast coach, will join the Blues as a consultant for the rest of the 2021 season to help Teague through his second full year in charge of Carlton.

With just two wins from five games in 2021, despite an offseason recruiting raid which netted Adam Saad from Essendon and Zac Williams from GWS, the pressure is building on Teague and the Blues to improve.

Worsfold, right, will be on deck for Carlton’s clash with Brisbane on Saturday and Teague said he would take feedback more about their processes as a coaching unit more than the way they play.

“I really rate his opinion and he challenges the way I think about things,” Teague said. “It’s more of a mentoring role. He will come over to a couple of games … it’s more to review our processes. How we go about things, and to give me feedback on the way we do things, not on what we’re doing as much.

“He thinks differently to me and more than anything, it’s not so much what he tells me, he challenges the way I think about things.”

Worsfold, who exited Essendon at the end of last year after five years as senior coach, spent three seasons with Teague during the pair’s time at West Coast as well as in Adelaide, having begun his coaching career as an assistant coach at the Blues in 2000.

The club said the 52-yearold, who guided the Eagles to the 2006 flag, would be in “regular contact with the coaching group and attend select games during the year in a mentorship capacity”.

Carlton head of football Brad Lloyd said Worsfold’s presence could benefit the entire football department.