There were more than enough direct quotes from the players to confirm that knowledge, it was very clear.
What player ever criticises their coach in public?
Theres a difference. Criticising a coach in public is very rare, however praising a coach in the public is not common. The fact that a number of players spoke out positively, both publicly and privately, about Hudson, speaks volumes.
There is no debating he has had a shocking first season in Colorado, however the hatred from many towards him on this thread is a little over the top IMO. Call him a con man as much as you want, but he almost got us to the World Cup with arguably our best player barely hobbling around the pitch. That Peru playoff was 10x better to watch than the Mexico one
At the risk of reopening a whole can of worms, it's misleading to just compare Hudson with Ricki in games 4 years apart. We had the home leg first vs Peru which meant that we could stick with a defensive game plan longer across both legs for a start, and ultimately despite the differences the end result was the same anyway. Also you mention our best player hobbling around the pitch but in 2014 Reid wasn't even available for the playoff games. But the bigger issue is just accepting that improvement from late-Ricki era performances was enough, or that there was a binary Herbert/Hudson option rather than other possibilities (Emblen, others). The what if question for me is what if Hudson hadn't spent a couple of seasons chopping and changing and picking random kids and talking up an attacking passing game while playing disjointed defensive long ball tactics? What if he'd let a core group of players get used to playing one set of tactics together for a few years, which is what he said he would do when he came in (remember the PowerPoint?).
I was pleasantly surprised at how well we did against Peru but I don't think that gives him a free pass for all the other stuff.
And ultimately I think the disconnect between how he presented himself and how he talked about the game vs what happened on the pitch is why people don't like him(combined with the self-promotion stuff). People generally don't like people who obviously bullshark. Maybe he was different with the players but his public persona (which he seemed to enjoy cultivating) was very unlikeable.
For sure Hudson shouldn't have talked up an attacking passing game when it wasn't happening. I had no problem with him though blooding so many youngsters, as AWs badly needed to increase their depth. There was the odd cheap cap, but many of the kids he first picked will be in and around the AWs for years ahead. Liam Graham & Henry Cameron may have kicked on - but looks like injury has helped jinx them.
Really for the OFC Nations Cup in PNG, he had no option, as so many first choice players were unavailable. It was only from about the USA/Mexico games in October 2016 (one year from Peru playoffs), that he had near a full strength side to pick from. Even for those games Tommy Smith was still on the outer. Any AWs coach is always going to be massively hamstrung by limited games (esp against quality opposition), player unavailability, and just overall limited contact time with players full stop.
Hudson stopped all his major tinkering/experimenting (Dale Ingham as an exception) in the last 12 mths of his reign.
Sure Hudson was fortunate to have the first playoff game at home, verus Herbert being in Mexico. Also having Reid in 2017, compared to no Reid in 2013 was massive.
However if Reid had been unavailable last year, Durante an experienced player who had been around the team a few years would have slotted in. Not the same quality of player, but as seamless a transition as you could realistically hope for with AWs. When Reid was injured in 2013, Herbert suddenly panicked and picked Jeremy Christie out of his hat! By the 2nd leg in Wellington, Herbert had virtual debutants in Tuiloma & Roux starting. Why weren’t they introduced a year prior, so at least they had some preparation for international football. The whole 2013 WC qualifying campaign had the leadership, vision & planning of the Dardanelles landings in April 2015. In other words a complete fudgeing mess.
Polarising Huddo is gone but not forgotten.
We now need some actual real AWs games, to start debating the value of the current coach.