JOHN Worsfold has been sending text messages to the 2006 premiership Eagles every week ahead of the 10-year reunion later this year, West Coast defender Sam Butler says.
Worsfold, the current Essendon coach, led the Eagles to a famous one-point win over the Sydney Swans in the 2006 Grand Final.
He has sent a text message to the players after each round recapping what happened to the Eagles in the corresponding round of the 2006 season.
Butler said it has rekindled some great memories and opened up some banter between a group that has drifted far and wide over the last decade.
"Woosha is getting a bit of unity between the old boys and sending through texts every round," Butler said.
"I thought he was just sending them to me for the first couple of weeks. I was trying to get a good chat going with him.
"Then I realised he was sending them to everyone so I didn't feel so special. I thought he was really caring about my input on it.
"Then I told him in last couple of weeks that I didn't play through injury for the first half of that season so I told him just start at round 12, don't text me before that, it doesn't matter.
"It's great. A lot of those boys are living interstate. We haven't been together in one group for a long time. So I'm really looking forward to seeing all the guys later on this year.
"Obviously Woosha and the other coaches are a massive part of that so for them to be involved and start getting the banter back up, it's been fun."
Butler joked that Worsfold appeared to have a lot of spare time despite being the coach of the Bombers this season.
"He's got a lot of time on his hands, apparently," Butler said.
"He's writing back to all the texts. I said, 'you probably should be doing the review from the game'. I don't think he liked that.
"He's a great guy, Woosh. He's a really personable guy and we've been enjoying some of the stuff that has been coming out.
"When (Essendon) made that appointment I said to many people that's the best possible choice they could have made.
"Knowing Woosha for so long, not only is he a good leader of players, he's a good leader of the whole football club. He's a great person to rally behind. I know for many years I played purely because I wanted to make him happy and as I said, he's the kind of guy that says, 'get behind me and I'll show you the way'.
"With the club in the position that they've been in, they could not have got anyone better than him."
Butler said he was looking forward to the premiership team getting together again.
"We've got a bond with those players for sure and anyone at the club around that time," Butler said.
"We did something that we challenged ourselves to do and we achieved something that we're quite proud of. We did it together and I'm just happy that everyone is still talking and getting along and hopefully it will be a great moment later on this year."
