Football stories like John Worsfold's are becoming increasingly rare. He's the bloke who first represented his club at 18, was skipper at 22, premiership captain the day after his 24th birthday, coach at 33, and premiership coach at 38.

Before Worsfold, the last player to separately captain and coach his club to premierships was David Parkin. He completed the double as a Hawk in 1971 and '78. The man prior to Worsfold to have become premiership coach of a club at which he actually played most of his football is Denis Pagan. He's one of only five to have done it in the last three decades. What a contrast to the 30 years before that, during which Ron Barassi was the only premiership coach to have been an outsider.

Times have changed. In the amateur era, a club's favourite son often took the coaching reins soon after his playing days were done. If he was able to translate his on-field heroics into off-field leadership, he won a flag or two and cemented his legend. Names like Reg Hickey, Phonse Kyne, John Coleman, and John Kennedy come to mind. Many more, however, failed in their second football life and faced that awful reality: the sack.

The element of the Worsfold story that remains consistent with both ancient and modern football history is that right now the sack is looming as a possibility. He is at the crossroads. He has coached his club to the third premiership in its history, but might now be taking it to its first wooden spoon. That this could be happening so soon after his declaration that the Eagles would be in contention for a premiership in three years has to leave him vulnerable.

Four-time premiership coach, Parkin, has always said that it's incumbent upon a coach to make an accurate appraisal of his list. When John Elliott, who didn't believe in re-building, asked him for an assessment of Carlton's list in 1990, Parkin said it needed re-building. This prompted Big Jack to admit that, at the least, a major renovation was required. Parkin was appointed coach for 1991 and won a premiership in his fifth season.

Worsfold's early-season declaration now carries with it the impression that he has misjudged his list and been on the wrong track. That's a dangerous place for a coach to be. It brings to mind Peter Schwab's articulated hope of a Hawthorn premiership early in 2004. As, with every defeat, the flag drifted further from view, Schwab's position became increasingly shaky. Before the season was done, the inevitable happened.

In Worsfold's favour is that he has demonstrated the capacity to get his team over the line. The Eagles didn't miss the finals in his first six years at the helm. They went within a kick of winning the 2005 flag then clinched the deal the next season. The club was then fractured by the drug-related issues swirling around it, plus the loss of Chris Judd. Despite hopes of a quick recovery, it hasn't happened. Worsfold is running out of time to demonstrate he's the man to drive it.

There's no doubt, though, that the Eagles' coach has suffered at the hands of fate and circumstance. Another slice of bad luck came his way in late 2008, when a prize assistant coaching recruit slipped through the club's fingers. Three-time Lions' premiership skipper, Michael Voss, was in the process of moving to Perth to join West Coast when Leigh Matthews stepped aside in Brisbane. With the Eagles' blessing, Voss took the reins at his old club.

Were Voss in Perth now, in demand and with a season and a half of experience as an assistant under his belt, the Eagles administration might be finding the temptation to move on their favourite son hard to resist.

But Voss is elsewhere. He's done it just like Woosha, just like it used to be: favourite son, premiership captain, hoping to coach his old club to a flag to complete the circle, and finding that this coaching is a tough business.