What a dogshark way to end the regular season.
For all the fawning over Rudan, all he's delivered so far is the absolute bare minimum in finishing 6th. And three of the four teams we finished above were absolutely terrible all season. Will be very suprised if we get a result against the Victory, but all I want to see is a full 90 minute performance which would be a first for the season.
Yes and no. We had a glimpse of what a good coach, knowledgeable about HAL but also tactically-savvy, could produce for us. The real test would have been Rudan's second year, otherwise he'd be no better than Ernie who also had one good season with us only.
I strongly suggest the 6th placing is circumstantial due to a truly messed up game against Brisbane and I blame Rudan's primadonna PR performance (= his timing of announcing his departure) to be chiefly at fault here. We were probably good for a fifth this season and that would have been fair. If we had got to the fourth, that would have been lucky, but we were close to that. Had Rudan announced his departure at the end of regular season, we would have been just as affected, and placing in 4th we would have easily lost to the 6th team.
That is of course all hypothetical. Rudan's season is what it is: a glimpse of what we could do, and might do again, with a good coach and stable coaching staff, and a supportive owner.
It's interesting, my reflections on the season are a bit different. I think we've ended up exactly where we belong, and the numbers perhaps bear this out. Our points tally against the bottom four teams:
P12 W8 D2 L2 (26 points)
The tally against the top 6:
P15 W3 D5 L7 (14 points)
Of the three wins against the top 6, 2 came against the 5th placed team (and it'd be fair to say that both were, at the very least, 50/50 propositions). We only have one win away from home against a top 6 team, and that came in December.
Sure, there are games we could look back to, like the ones in Brisbane, and think that we could/should have got more points out of. The flipside of that is that there have also been a number of games that we were lucky to get points out of. I'm also not convinced that Rudan's a great tactician - Kurz definitely outshone him head to head, and Corica did too after being caught by surprise in the first game between the teams. I think Rudan's value has come through him giving the team confidence and self-belief, which has been sorely lacking the last few years, and this was repaid by Krishna who had a season for the ages. And I'd argue it's Krishna's season (and the above average contribution of Williams) that made a big difference this season. Quick stat - Krishna and Williams have scored almost as many goals this season between them (29) as the entire team scored last season (31).
Ultimately, what this season has shown is how little the fans need to feel excited and upbeat about the club - win a few games, score some goals, and make the playoffs, and most people will feel positive and want to come back to watch the team again next season.
