Jeff Vader wrote:
The biggest single thing that I took away from that 30 min watch is that there was no culture and it looks like there never has been. As he kinda illustrated and reading between the lines
- no code of conduct
- players setting tactics
- players and staff too close
- no accountability of performance
- no repercussions from performance
In other words, the tail was well and truly wagging the dog and either the dog was not too fussed by it or completely dumb to the fact in changing it.
Those kind of things above you would expect at a minimum to be instilled and I guess while I knew the set up was kinda marginal under Ricki in some respects (and look at the Nelsen stories that came out of WC2010), I did not think it was to this degree. Granted it could be a case of having higher standards but I like that this guy has set out a bloody clear plan, is not scared to make the big calls and is getting on with it whether you are with him or not.
To be honest, if you had told me Edge and Sail would have had a sniff (Edge particularly) I would have laughed at you and even more so if you had said that James would not be there after the last performance but for some reason, I am not alarmed by this. He has stated exactly why he is doing this and the reasons and I can say 'yup, seems legit'. In a lot of respects, he knows the bulk of his starters and I suspect they do too (Moss, Reid, Smith, Wood, Kosta, Thomas, Marco, McGlinchey) but then he does not know the rest or the next tier down and especially the next tier for the future and whom is pushing those starters.
The players are not always going to execute and I can accept that, but then I somehow think that will be more from a technically deficiency/experience aspect rather than coaching.
I think Hudson knows what he has on his plate now and is off to fix it. I for one, am onboard and if its not successful, I can appreciate that at the end of his reign, the team will be in a much better shape for the next man. I thought Hudson had inherited a decent team but listening to him, sounds more like just a bunch of players that happened to wear the same colour shirt.
A word of caution: the same happened in '05 when Ricki took over.