Fancy the so called fans calling out other fans only after the fact...
I call them the Vegans of the the football fan world, because they just cant help themselves but have tell anyone who will listen on how right they are (3 months later)
It's a very odd form of hubris.
A bit like playing Russian Roulette, celebrating "I knew the chamber was empty all along " (yeah, no you didn't) and then admonishing everyone else as stupid for pointing out that your chamber
could very well have contained the contents of your very own personalised Darwin Award.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of how well Ciraldo has done, is doing, and how he's likely to go based on what they've observed so far. But those claiming "they knew", one way or the other (yes, it applies in equal measure to the "certain he'd succeed" crowd as it does to the "he's already failed" crowd), are fooling no one; well, maybe a few - never underestimate the number of "gullibles" that exist, I suppose.
Anyways. Ciraldo is doing well. I had great concerns, based on last year, that he might not have learnt anything over the pre-season (which would have indicated that he might not be teachable). Not all of the concerns have been allayed as yet, but plenty of encouraging steps in the right direction.
In the first trial we played an awesome field position game (please, more of this), albeit against a B-grade Storm outfit, and even though we've come up short in too many games this season, for my liking, there is no argument that our defence and attitude are many levels above where it has been. That's a great foundation to lay a re-build upon.
So, in the very least, I think he has successfully answered the "I thought he was Penrith's defensive guru" question; it appears he was, and now he's ours.
Questions that remain are:
1. Can he overcome his 2023 "Perham-effect" selection bias blind spot (2024: "Hutchison");
2. Can he get this team up another notch from "gallant losses" to "ugly wins" (we need to move from "games we should have won" to "gee, what a bonus those 2 points were");
3. Bench rotations. To be fair, he might not be wrong with what he's currently doing. Maybe in the modern game, with HIA's, etc, he's ahead of the curve and the meta will become a large proportion of near 80-min players complimented by four cameos that provide maximum flexibility, but not all feature for big minutes in any given week depending on how the game unfolds.
So, for mine, he's still right in the middle. Doing well. Improving. But with much still yet to improve and prove. I hope he can take the next step from promising coach to very good coach soon, and hopefully on the way to excellent coach. If he does that we might see him around for a Bellamy-esque tenure as Head Coach of the Bulldogs *fingers crossed*.
P.S When have Vegans EVER been right about anything, even 3 months later? Best thing one can do with deviant predilections, is keep quiet about them
