In fairness to DCE i recall seeing an interview about Foran and himself and DCE mentioned something along the lines of acknowledging he lacks or needs to develop the more composed qualities of managing a game or something to that affect.
But in saying that it's not unfair to expect at his pay grade and experience at the club he should offer more in this regard.
I do think at times DCE does the early kick or low percentage early attacking kick because he doesn't rate the ability of our forward pack to consistently come out of trouble "fitness and thrust wise", he is willing to take the criticism of high risk plays which deflects the attention off our poor forward pack over the years.(that is a form of leadership to a degree)
A leader needs to inspire his troops and push his forwards into quality hitups when required to encourage a disciplined display no matter how exhausted they look. By taking the high risk/low percentage big gain options and playing too off the cuff it encourages a more relaxed, lazy or less involved performance in others.
The short side intercept play is what annoys most fans, he didn't really count the numbers it was three on three(sure his skip on the outside of his defender might have created an overlap by sucking the second man in) but really his only options was a show and go or a short pass to either on his outside that the second defender in could easily read and try for an intercept knowing DCE was covered anyway.
His short side plays are too predictable and bordering on a Chad Randall auto pilot mentality.
DCE probably has the best or close to the best rounded skillset in the game but his application is average at best----this is why he is judged so harshly, also being a well spoken thoughtful type you would think this would translate well in game IQ, leadership and management but it doesn't.
If DCE played for any of the Qld teams they would all perform well, i just feel that environment would get the best out of him and the players would look up to him more being an experienced outsider who has won a premiership. At Manly many just see him as either riding off our quality players of the past or "over selfishly" tried to extract too much out of the club financially.
Tom and Jake can take that load and similar criticsm now lol so the pressure is off DCE which might help his game.