At this stage of the year I’m still torn on whether our performance so far is an aberration or an indication we’ve gone as far as we can go with Dimma and his game plan.
The fair part of me says after 4 years of improvement a fall backwards is forgivable. That he should be given the benefit of the doubt and 2015 to show that he can fix the leaks before the ship sinks completely.
Getting rid of Dimma could be the perfect case of throwing the baby... his best coaching years could be the next several and we would have lost out on them. Makes sense and there’s a fair history in the annals of coaching to support this view.
There’s a lot of talk about him having lost the players – I’m not convinced. But then I’m a confirmed agnostic – I need hard evidence before I believe.
Having said that there has been a lot of strange behaviour about the place this year – mainly generated by Jack.
There’s also a lot of language which sounds like the stuff of separation – starting with the naming of Ellis and Conca, to the ongoing (and annoying) acknowledgment of not knowing what the problem is – even the constant refrain of “the players...” to explain what is going wrong instead of the use of the collective “we”.
And finally there’s a very confused bunch of players running around on the park looking like they’ve been playing the game for 5 minutes.
But Jack is Jack and can crack the weirds without it being any reflection on the coach.
Dimma’s been to the top as player and assistant coach and has probably been ramping up the pressure on players to perform better each year. It wouldn’t surprise me that he has given some fairly clear directives at the start of this year to a lot of the guys about what it is to be a player in a successful era and a lot have not responded – they’re just not up it. The fact that he alludes to the fact in public may be his way of keeping that pressure up.
And finally, his game plan (as ugly as it is) might just be the next big thing. I don’t think the players have carried it out. It may need work and more practice to get it right. But I’m prepared to give Dimma that time.
The fair part of me says after 4 years of improvement a fall backwards is forgivable. That he should be given the benefit of the doubt and 2015 to show that he can fix the leaks before the ship sinks completely.
Getting rid of Dimma could be the perfect case of throwing the baby... his best coaching years could be the next several and we would have lost out on them. Makes sense and there’s a fair history in the annals of coaching to support this view.
There’s a lot of talk about him having lost the players – I’m not convinced. But then I’m a confirmed agnostic – I need hard evidence before I believe.
Having said that there has been a lot of strange behaviour about the place this year – mainly generated by Jack.
There’s also a lot of language which sounds like the stuff of separation – starting with the naming of Ellis and Conca, to the ongoing (and annoying) acknowledgment of not knowing what the problem is – even the constant refrain of “the players...” to explain what is going wrong instead of the use of the collective “we”.
And finally there’s a very confused bunch of players running around on the park looking like they’ve been playing the game for 5 minutes.
But Jack is Jack and can crack the weirds without it being any reflection on the coach.
Dimma’s been to the top as player and assistant coach and has probably been ramping up the pressure on players to perform better each year. It wouldn’t surprise me that he has given some fairly clear directives at the start of this year to a lot of the guys about what it is to be a player in a successful era and a lot have not responded – they’re just not up it. The fact that he alludes to the fact in public may be his way of keeping that pressure up.
And finally, his game plan (as ugly as it is) might just be the next big thing. I don’t think the players have carried it out. It may need work and more practice to get it right. But I’m prepared to give Dimma that time.
