perspective is key. You take general facts and skew for your chosen path.
My take is this.
We had the Best Coach at the time and a Gun lineup that he put together and OUR board and owners played silly buggers and got burnt. He only ever went to the dogs after the Manly Board made it impossible to stay.
In all his years at the dogs he only missed the finals once in his last season. 2 GF appearances. 1 Minor premiership. and some pretty good football. Yes the dogs hit the wall towards the end but that was after Toodles left and the new board stripped haslers back room staff and aids. He was a walking corpse the last 2 years at the dogs not of his own doing.
He comes back and takes us to within 10 min of a prelim. the same side and players that almost took the wooden spoon under Twenty.
The following year Covid hits and the rule changes just don't work for us. DW in court on DV charges. MF stood down. No recognized hooker. bad year sure.
We then have a Stella 2021 and make the prelims.
2022 has been a **** show yes but look at our current side. players who ar lucky to play for BW are being called into the side. the club management blowing us up from the inside. an the rest is history.
after our mid season burst we were looking great until the rainbow saga which has broken the place. Des didn't do this. he is trying to fix it. Then the MF court case.
What do you really want from the guy?
Respect your opinion as always EOL - this is Ryan btw.
My view is a little different. I don't like to cherry pick one year in comparison to another to look at success (or failure) of a coach, because that takes into consideration one off situations (terrible injuries, white hot run of form, terrible drops in form, roster issues, cap issues or penalties), so I think the best way to test Des, is by looking at his results since returning, and mate that's basically 4 years, so lets round it to make 5 (just to look at the last half a decade).
In that period, he hasn't won close to half his games, and as the losses mount, that statistic is regressing. Therefore, yeah mate, we are getting into Trent Barrett type territory.
You'd be okay with that (like I'd say The Bulldogs fans are) if it appeared we were making changes to turn this form around (i.e. roster acquisitions, playing group all pulling in the same direction, coaching changes, accountability on and off the field), but we are seeing nothing. That plod Tuilagi doesn't instill ANY confidence whatsoever.
We've just apparently had a raft of players ask or seek a release (thankfully
@Mitch poured cold water over that), on top of Taupau, Foz, Walker, Davey leaving. Davey being told he wasn't getting another contract (wtf, we can't even fill our top 30 with players who could make the actual team ffs).
SO, what's the outlook. You (and many others to be fair) are saying you want the status quo to continue. Same coach, same players (less all those leaving), same culture - but you obviously want a different result. That's pretty bleak.
You asked about different coaching options:
1. Siebold (Manly DNA), with Cronk (assistant)
2. Cronk, with Bellamy (coaching director)
3. Walker brothers (Manly DNA)
4. Flannagan (has won a premiership more recently)
5. Kristian Woolf (77% win ratio in the ESL)
6. Mick Potter (has turned a failing Hasler / Barrett inspired failure around already)
etc etc etc - there's heap more. You can't just say, "and they won't work" because we don't know mate. We NEED change, and BADLY.
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