Hope you are right. I would be livid if he'd been extended before we confirmed a top 4 spot. Which we did not. For me nothing short of winning the GF should trigger an extension, especially from this dismal position. And that's not going to happen.
Nor is another GF appearance, but if the miracle happens, I'd tolerate the extension which the raelene and the board seem to so desperately want.
Thing is if you think back to the West Tigers win which was a good win. Two weeks before we beat Brisbane 40 - 16 then Roosters 24 - 20. Roosters probably better team but they played really well and were at full strength so again good win.
After round 18 the team was equal 3rd (4th on %) playing well.
Then the Cowboys game when the rot set in.
I know we had 3 more wins but the team was very sratchy then the last 3 games against better teams really found them out.
I guess what I think is the wheels have fallen off because of players form, not because the structure became redundant from round 19.
To me who has watched rugby league for 42 years the form of certain players has been totally unacceptable.
Like Williams, Fualolo, Holland, Browne & Mybe falling off one on one tackles.
Mybe kicking the ball dead from 20 & 25 meters out.
He was never going to force a play the ball from that far out. Kick it into touch that way we have a set defence line from a 10m scrum ot put a high ball up and maybe force an error.
Or Tolman making three meter runs.
Tolman, Graham, Fualolo, Browne failing to get over the advantage line.
The handeling errors have been horrendous.
Which I think has forced Des' hand to play an even more conservative boring structure.
The players are more responsible for the form slump than the coaching staff.
Des will wear the responsibility of the team's performance as coaches always do.
However I think he has the right to feel aggrieved by the performance of his players.
I think we lose Sunday based on form, how could we expect any other result.
A loss first week of the finals should not be good enough for the board.
Then the decision has to be made stick with Des and the current squad to 2019 or start the rebuild and remove any expectation of finals football for 2017 & 2018.