So he should be. He shouldn’t be getting two different extensions without improving our style of play. Or even adapting our style of play.
Note the back end of our seasons against our starts. Tell me he hasn’t acquiesced halfway through when he has failed at the start.
He plays the Bellamy gameplan without the freak options of Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, etc. to accommodate the mediocrity of his grunts who follow the instructions. We can be electric, but we are boring in the majority.
There is a reason we scrape in just barely. It’s because 9 other coaches haven’t worked that out either.
Maybe he should focus on an early start.
I don’t think anyone will ever really know why he suddenly decided to change our style between 2023 and 2024. To me that was the most baffling thing from last year. It could be that he was stubborn in wanting to follow a particular game plan, or for all we know it was a result of the form of the players. Hastings had broken down and Brailey was coming back after consecutive ACLs. Hard to play expansive football when your playmakers are so slow the opposition can smother the play before the ball can even get to your strike players. I’d say it’s likely a combination of both as my issues with AOB are mainly tactical.
I’m very keen to see what style we play to start the year. From all reports all the spine options have had full pre seasons so that can’t be an excuse this year.
Tbh I find us a hard side to get a read on and what we need to do to improve. I think most of the “experts” feel the same too as they all basically have a different opinion of who we need to pick in the halves and what style we should play.
I think whoever we pick in the halves will give us a good idea of what style we’re aiming for. If it’s some combination of Cogger/Gamble/Crossland/Hastings I’m expecting more of a grinding style. If someone like Sharpe or Pryce (less likely) are named, I think that’s a pretty good indication we’re aiming for a more attacked minded game plan.
