The jury has to be out on Pay. He has a lot of excuses for why we are going terrible. But it is too easy to just say give him 3 years before we can judge him. Pay needs to be put on notice that we are not a club willing to lose three years just to then say we gave you a chance. He needs to be seen to be improving either the squad or the way we are playing in the meantime.
Not dropping Montoya is indicative of Pay's coaching style. He is not prepared to risk changes. The fact that Olive showed what can happen when fresh talent is injected into the side is enough to show what change can achieve. The problem though is that the Olive change was forced on Pay and he didn't initiate it.
Pay's standing amongst fans would have increased greatly if he had dropped Montoya and put Olive in the centres and pushed Hoppa onto the wing before Jmoz's injury. That would have been proactive coaching. Instead he waited for an injury to change a backline that has scored the least amount of tries this year.
That is also my only critisism of Pay. He doesnt have a lot of options but a coach on his position must be seen, at least, to have the nous to tinker with the team if there is a glaringly weak link. He has made changes but more than a few are ill considered and without long term benefits...and thst has been evident to everyone that knows this club and the players strengths and weaknesses.
Over all tho we can't be too critical...he needs help because this club is in major hemorraging mode on several fronts.
It would be best for people to give the guy a break, and keep the fact that we are going through yet another horrendous period of our momentous history, in perspective.
Chris Anderson, for one, knows what's what to guide a Club. It will take a while to resolve but we gotta believe they are working on it.
