EOL now nesting on the GC
Official NRL commentator of the UK Royal Family
Premium Member
Tipping Member
lots of discontent after that non performance against Penrith. I too feel gutted just like many of you.
This would be normally where I 100% stick up for Des with the same lines about troops, injury and young players.
This time I'm finding it difficult as he's definitely made some poor calls imho but in the sprit of fair judgement I will give it a go.
Has his time passed? Perhaps, but do great coaches time ever really pass? They get stale at a club sure but that doesn't mean its over. Its about the players available and their ability to buy into a system.
Hasler took over in 2004 a side that was pretty light. It had the stewart brothers, menzies, monna and a few other decent players. It finished 14th with some pretty horrendous scorelines.
2005 again he added a few quality players. BK made a huge attitude difference. Kite was added, watmaugh started to come thru and most importantly the dead wood was moved out.
Fast forward to 2019 and he returns to an underperformed side with some genuine superstars but again a lot of dead wood. Does an amazing job of getting this rag tag bunch up for a fight and if a few things had have gone our way we could have been in the big dance. I doubt we would have won but it was a big effort.
2020 has been a mixed bag. Some good others not so. Takeaway is the dead wood has to be cleaned out this year.
If we know anything about Hasler its his loyalty to his players. Its one of his biggest pluses but also a huge flaw.
We are surely now at the point that players like parker, Jorge, Elliott, and especially croker are let go.
Thing is Des is safe. With this team we will be there or there abouts come finals. Not too 4 now but have a chance. His downside is that he continues the play safe as if getting into the finals is the goal and many it is. Didn't he have some clause about making the top 8 in his contract?
And after all the words above (sorry) we can all look at the broncos where changes are made willy nilly. Do we want that? I sure don't. I would like a freshen up with Schuster and hoppa but do you drop them into an underperformed side or bring them in when they are ready?
This would be normally where I 100% stick up for Des with the same lines about troops, injury and young players.
This time I'm finding it difficult as he's definitely made some poor calls imho but in the sprit of fair judgement I will give it a go.
Has his time passed? Perhaps, but do great coaches time ever really pass? They get stale at a club sure but that doesn't mean its over. Its about the players available and their ability to buy into a system.
Hasler took over in 2004 a side that was pretty light. It had the stewart brothers, menzies, monna and a few other decent players. It finished 14th with some pretty horrendous scorelines.
2005 again he added a few quality players. BK made a huge attitude difference. Kite was added, watmaugh started to come thru and most importantly the dead wood was moved out.
Fast forward to 2019 and he returns to an underperformed side with some genuine superstars but again a lot of dead wood. Does an amazing job of getting this rag tag bunch up for a fight and if a few things had have gone our way we could have been in the big dance. I doubt we would have won but it was a big effort.
2020 has been a mixed bag. Some good others not so. Takeaway is the dead wood has to be cleaned out this year.
If we know anything about Hasler its his loyalty to his players. Its one of his biggest pluses but also a huge flaw.
We are surely now at the point that players like parker, Jorge, Elliott, and especially croker are let go.
Thing is Des is safe. With this team we will be there or there abouts come finals. Not too 4 now but have a chance. His downside is that he continues the play safe as if getting into the finals is the goal and many it is. Didn't he have some clause about making the top 8 in his contract?
And after all the words above (sorry) we can all look at the broncos where changes are made willy nilly. Do we want that? I sure don't. I would like a freshen up with Schuster and hoppa but do you drop them into an underperformed side or bring them in when they are ready?