I was born and raised in the Illawarra, played most of my footy there, most of my family and friends are still there and a lot of them were dyed in the wool Steeler's tragics. When i talk footy these days with a lot of them, the conversation goes something like...."with the Kogarah Gestapo pulling the strings, the Illawarra side of the JV is nothing more than a breeding ground for the Saints to pillage". I'm well aware that a lot of Illawarra people want Mary gone, but there is a lot of them that would see his sacking as the Kogarah crew just flexing their muscle with scant regard for what the Gong half of the JV might want. There is a lot of animosity and disdain for this JV from both sides, whether you believe it or not.
Then there's the Illawarra contingent on the board and the hangers on, the main reason for me believing there is some 'face saving" maneuvers at play. We all know that Sean O'Connor was never prepared to entertain anyone other than Mary as head coach. He even went as far as saying that Mary would be the next Super Coach, lol, he must feel like an absolute f**kwit about now and will be doing everything in his power to have Mary shuffled on quietly and respectfully so as not to draw too much attention to himself for putting the impostor there in the first place. He was also obviously able to get at least one of the saints directors to side with him in order for Mary to get the gig....guess that/those directors are still trying to wipe the egg off their faces and would prefer that his exit is done sensitively so as not to draw attention to their imbecilic actions also.
The Illawarra side of the JV are still smarting over losing games in the Gong that were promised to them when the merger was signed and still to this day believe they are being dictated to and treated as irrelevant by the Saints. Whether you want to believe that face saving, placating, dignity decisions or any other form of carefully scripted plays to try and keep certain factions happy are just thin air or arse pulled statements is rightfully your decision to make, and i respect that, but i also have my position which i stated above and until i see otherwise i am comfortable with sticking with it.
As I stated, there is no way that we can't afford to pay Mary out one years worth of his contract, so we can extinguish that excuse. He is obviously a total failure and it is untenable for him to continue for another season as is, but he still there, so obviously the powers to be are too weak to make the correct call and dismiss him effective immediately for incompetence. So in my opinion, stress my opinion, either the board are finding or have found a suitable replacement and it will be announced at seasons end, or, they are carefully structuring "a change" that sees Mary's and the Steelers dignity kept in tact (along with O'Connor, and anyone else involved that have f**ked up royally) and that this will evolve in the quiet of the off season in the hope that the least amount of attention is drawn to it. I tend to think it will be the latter (as i was suggesting on my original post) and all the recent talk of Cleary being muted as a director of coaching sort of starts to fit this line of thought. I really hope i'm wrong and that sanity prevails, but with all the egos, politics and big brother little brother sentiment, i can't help feeling we will end up with a "peacemakers solution" to our coaching woes. Problem is, most peace talks inevitably break down and turn to shit, which is exactly where i expect to end up if Mary is still allowed anywhere near the team into the future.
