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JD's Performance

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bigbopper

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I am not convinced that JD is the coach for us - I am not saying he isn't but I do have a few concerns. We've lost too many games this year that we should have won (at least on paper) - these were all victories in 2021 and to make matters worse we've fallen apart badly a couple of times against teams that are no more than fringe eight sides. On the other hand, we've had a couple of unlucky losses and Latrell being injured has been a blow so there are some excuses. Cody is in a bit of a slump (not bad by any means but below his best) - I don't know to what extent we should expect the coach to fix that.

The Milne/Paulo swapping in the outside backs was pretty untidy. I believe JD was too slow to promote Tass and to leave him there.

I'm interested to hear the thoughts of fellow Pridesters particularly if they have seen anything that marks JD as a good coach or more importantly the coach we need.

Cheers
 
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I have been disappointed at times with some of JD's selections but I think he is slowly getting better.
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I feel like he needs the time to learn, kinda jumped into first grade coaching too fast. Maybe needed a couple of seasons to run a team in england or one of the lower grades as a stand alone coach rahter than waynes understudy.
 
I'll give him a pass mark, he seems composed, there are selection concerns voiced by the pride every season but on the whole I think he has got most things right and seems to learn from his mistakes.

The players inmportantly seem to be Ok with him, no reports of player unrest. His postition seems secure to me.
 
I was really unhappy with JD after the debacle against the Drag-ons but super happy with him after our win against Parra, so a bit 50/50
 
The game against Parra was going to show me so much about JD and how he could get them up after such a poor performance.

Whist I still am questionable the game was a step in the right direction.

We were lucky we had Bennett to guide us through the transition of losing Sam, GI and Sutton. Don’t forget that big part of that year we were struggling. It wasn’t until the back end of the season where we started to show consistency.

JD has to manage us through losing Reynolds, Gagai and to a lesser extent Su’A. Very hard having to transition having a Rookie halfback come in to take over a player like Reynolds.

Bennett had the luxury of replacing a couple of those players with Jai Arrow and Latrell Mitchell.

Injuries have really hurt us this year as well. More so now. It will be interesting to see how we go from here on.

JD also had a very disrupted off-season. If he can manage us into the finals and get us to week 2 then it’s a pass mark for me.

Next year I’ll be expecting much more.
 
I would sign him up again a super coach in the making 🏆
 
It's certainly going to be interesting to see the coach JD becomes. I really hope he bucks the trend of post-Bennett coaches and comes good. Honestly, there are some decisions that he has made that I have questioned. Let's see how we're looking towards the back end of the year. My judgement is reserved for the time being.
 
We will need to persist. It looks like the. Benchmark for us is game from GF as we've ended up there more then not. He will need to deliver next year I guess.
 
I really like JD and think he can coach - my guess is he will be around for a while here. But gee it’s a tough career to be successful in. Case in point Madge.

Losing Reynolds and Bennett is huge (to a lesser extend Gagai as well), and a top 6 finish if we can get there is a great result for mine. Top 8 is a pass realistically given Latrells absence for almost half a season, all time slowest backline, and what seems like a period where we are rebalancing the cap.

I’m surprised - maybe I shouldn’t be - by some of the criticism he’s received on the forum. Especially after the dragons game and specifically the Ilias decision - people seem to forget we put some dud performances in under Bennett too, and with an elite halfback leading us around.

Anyway I think we should hold off on judgement until this time next year. Unless we win the comp this year - safe to declare him then and there in that case.
 
bigbopper said:
I am not convinced that JD is the coach for us - I am not saying he isn't but I do have a few concerns. We've lost too many games this year that we should have won (at least on paper) - these were all victories in 2021 and to make matters worse we've fallen apart badly a couple of times against teams that are no more than fringe eight sides. On the other hand, we've had a couple of unlucky losses and Latrell being injured has been a blow so there are some excuses. Cody is in a bit of a slump (not bad by any means but below his best) - I don't know to what extent we should expect the coach to fix that.

The Milne/Paulo swapping in the outside backs was pretty untidy. I believe JD was too slow to promote Tass and to leave him there.

I'm interested to hear the thoughts of fellow Pridesters particularly if they have seen anything that marks JD as a good coach or more importantly the coach we need.

Cheers
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I think the games we've lost are on the players more than JD. It comes down to poor ball-handling and errors. Yes, you could argue it's ultimately the coach's problem and perhaps an attitude problem (especially the Dragons game), but you can't teach players not to lose the ball or make errors.

I liken JD in a way to Todd Payten in 2021. A new coach taking over and the players took a while to adjust and their completion rate was terrible. People were questioning his coaching ability and look how he's gone this year once the players bought in and started hanging onto the ball.

I hope JD (and the team) finishes off this year strongly. It was looking promising after Latrell's return last week, but it will be a difficult task now though with so many players out long-term.

I'm certain we'll see improvements from JD next year.
 
The main issue we have is not the coach or the the players, it's management. Player retention and recruitment has not been great. When you loose a number of representative level players and replace them with guys that can not get a regular start at bottom four clubs then it's little wonder we are struggling to make the 8. On top of that we apparently don't have much cap space. Considering what we have lost and what we have gained someone has stuffed up the salary cap.
 
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Jury is still out on JD.

He’s been solid.

But also a little slow to react at times and has had some poor selections so far. These coaching decisions have 100% cost us games.

But as things stand, he’s a win out of 4th, so no harm no foul.

If he can pull a finish somewhere 4-6 he gets a pass mark and it’s happy days. 7 or 8 is a pass-.

Outside the 8 and I think we’re 12-18 months from a new coach.

Can’t miss the 8 with this side and the run home is testing. Let’s hope we didn’t drop too many early season games to hold on.
 
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