Everyone writing Des off... Come on, it's round 3. Are we all forgetting 2021, where Des had us 0-4, and went on to go to the prelim? Absolutely early days for Des and the Titans. What, should we have sacked him in 2004 because he missed the finals? He might be trying to rebuild the Titans from the ground up. There's no superstars there or much platform to build upon aside from two forwards. We copped some of our biggest losses ever in our rebuilding period in 2004, 2005 and 2006. They didn't sack him then, and it paid off.
Additionally, I can't remember him going well in the opening to seasons since maybe 2012 at the Dogs, but after all, it's what you produce in the middle and at the end of the year that matters. Who cares at all about a bloody pre-season challenge or who's on top of the table mid-way through the year. South's did last year, they were first, and have gone nowhere since.
You can't reasonably expect any coach to do much after what happened in the pride jersey saga. I think Des leaving was probably the right call, in the sense that to rebuild the club's culture and close the divides, everything would have to change about the environment. New centre of excellence, new coach, new CEO, new logo, new culture (that tied back to the winners of old), it was part of the process of repairing a team that clearly had a lot wrong with it after the pride jersey. They wouldn't have done all of these things if the pride jersey was just some overblown media thing that had no effect on the team, club and culture. It clearly wasn't something just wrong with the coach. Things were in genuine deep poop, and even Turbo admitted that the stories about him and Jake wanting to leave were actually true. That's not a club where you can expect the coach to win.
Even from supporters of other teams, before the pride jersey we were Top 8 certainties, even with millions on the sidelines from injuries. That presented itself in statistical models, projections, and the views of actually competent analytical journalists around that time. You cannot possibly think Des is washed or gone, for losing 7 in a row in a clearly horrific environment that literally required an entire refresh or the club, after appearing to be a top-8 side prior, and for losing the first 2 in a row, as is normal for Des, without a first choice spine and with an inherited top-heavy roster.
These are some of the biggest overreactions I've ever seen. What will speak as to whether he's washed or not is what happens by September. We could just as well go to lose every single game from here on out as the Titans could win the premiership.
