You're right FS. He had enough chances and I'm not critical of that. The kid had enormous talent and still does but emotionally he's not in the right space. Better though to persist for a while than to let them go too early and see them succeed elsewhere and that was my ciricism of some decisions to let kids go too early. Worst can happen if you keep them is they dont achieve what the expectations suggest. No great loss. But let them go too early and you've potentially lost almost forever someone with potential who does achieve the expectations. That's a greater loss as I think Manly should be realising.
As for the defensive reads, as I mentioned when something is identified as a flaw, the tendency is to look out for it in future. Human nature. So you will see what you expect to see. However, if the flaw is not identified, we don't look for it. All to do with perceptions. If I could indicate a comparison, there is today a negative attitude regarding the violet nature of Muslim people. The violence overseas leads us to generalise. So a Muslim lad stabs someone in Sydney and immediately we identify him as Muslim and it confirms our perceptions. But someone else who stabs, who isn't Muslim or an identified culture we are wary of, we don't even ask the question about their cultural background. May surprise many that statistically regarding violent offences per percentage of people of that culture in Australia, people of Irish descent have the highest rating. Check it out. But rarely are Irish people identified as having that flaw, because its not brought to our attention. Mind you the difference between differing cultures is actually quite small and this is not to disrespect people of Irish descent, but rather to show how perception works. Maltese are also up there. Who'd have thought.