Thanks for the comments.
How can you know what you are getting yourself into, when you have no idea on what will happen.
It's not as if this is a completely new competition built from scratch or as if we are playing a different sport. I don't see many other teams coming up with the plethora of excuses we've used. Maybe i've missed them, maybe. Still, I don't see the chiefs, highlanders or the lions changing half the starting XV from game to another just to rotate players (i'm sure someone will come up with a counter example but you get my point).
Those things matter and it could have been quite easy to prepare for that. For the lack of a better word, it looks amateurish. That is what ****** me off. I am 100% sure having someone who knows the teams in SR, is familiar with how travelling affects the teams in the competition and is more used to SR refs would have been able to provide us with invaluable insights.
If you tell me we are trying to play a more open style and that's why we are dropping the balls, fair enough. I see the plan, i can understand it won't happen overnight and even if i disagree with the plan itself, i can see the logic behind it. I don't see the logic here.
I'm willing to accept it might be a communication thing, meaning there is a plan, they just haven't told us what that is. I'd love to know what that is thou.
As stated above this year's tournament is a whole new kettle of fish that everyone needs to adapt to. There is not one single team that has remained unbeaten. To put blame solely on the coaching staff is IMHO a bit shortsighted. This is just as an overwhelming experience for them as it is for the players.
I understand experience is a big part of it, but lets be honest, you want to speed up the learning curve as much as you can. I don't think we did that.
I can understand what happened and even hypothesize why it happened, but i believe we could have done better, much better.
When writers made predictions prior to this year's tournament, a lot of things were said, I doubt many of those remarks will still be echoed today. Many people said that the Kings won't win a single game this year, and already they have proven them wrong. Many said that the Bulls won't be playoff contenders, yet they are still in the hunt. The list goes on. I just think some Jaguares fans are way too critical of their team and expect way too much of them too early. Look at the Rebels, it has taken them a fair while to become competitive and its only now that they show some promise and could potentially be ***le contenders.
I've watched probably 2-3 games on average per round. Jaguares are, by far, the most inconsistent team of the tournament. It's not even a contest.
The gap between our best performance and our worst is simply astronomical. This is speculation (hard to demonstrate conclusively), but i'm pretty sure the gap between potential and actual results is enormous too. For that, i have to blame management. It's part of their job description. I could let it slide if it had been a one-off thing, but our performance had more ups and downs than a bloody roller coaster. That is just not good enough.
Another thing that i didn't like was that, regardless of the performance, the way we planned games appeared to be the same regardless of the opposition.
We got to the point where a considerable number of our own supporters were saying "kick the bloody ball for a change". That's a new one for us, trust me.
We became predictable, everyone knew what we were going to do and more often than not, had a plan to stop it. We kept doing the same thing again and again and again, regardless of the results.
That's 100% the coaching staff's fault. You need to have a plan B. We clearly did not.
And just to be crystal clear, i wasn't expecting them to win the damn thing on their first attempt. I (honestly) expected them to be fighting for a spot in the playoffs till the last round. It was clear to me we were out after our 4th game. That's how big the gap was.
I know i'm being critical, maybe a bit too much. I'm venting a bit but i sincerely believe we missed a good opportunity to make a dent here. I don't think the staff should be sacked. I'm saying their grace period is over. They needed to learn? Fine, they've had 9 games. Time to get some points on the board.
Looking forward, i'll probably judge them based mostly on 3 games. Sharks at home, and Lions away and at home. I think those three should be a ballpark measure of where we should stand. Let's see if we do.
Cheers.
