I agree wholeheartedly that this is frustrating. I don't for a second believe that Sheens and crew are bumbling about in the dark.
I'm pretty sure their hand was forced due to the decisions made by the Dogs and Warriors. Despite the optics, once they decided Madge was not the right guy going forward, I believe they made the hard right decision by letting him go and not doing it all behind his back. It has been painful for us all.
The early CC announcement is hard to understand; however, either they were very confident in the discussions they already had or the decision was leaked to the media so they had to try and get on the front foot. Did the Chair blowing up at the podcast scuttle HMAS CC or was it something else. We will probably never know until Sheens writes his memoirs.
Suffice to say they have been very quiet regarding where they are going since. The media are doing the same as us fans - speculating and jumping at shadows. While it appears that the recruiting options are drying up (not that the open market is much chop) and the delay in the coaching selection is apparently hurting our recruitment does anyone seriously believe that Sheens and Co are sitting on their hands?
Like him or hate him Sheens is a strategic thinker. He makes some decisions that appear crazy; but, were are made to achieve, or explore, an outcome. To create the circumstances for or to stimulate change.
In the military they have what are called shaping operations. Sometimes these operations involve forces doing something unrelated to cause the enemy to react; ie, to set the preconditions for another part of the operation (this is where the term throw shape at them comes from in our game), they also include an element of information operations (known as Psyops in the old times) . This has two components - protection your own information (no leaks) while concurrently getting information out to support your desired endstate or shape the enemies thinking.
The media is filling the news void with speculation to make themselves look and feel relevant. You only have to read this thread to see that NRL 360 are achieving exactly what they want to achieve. Discussion about them! As fans we can choose to be like the media and jump at every shadow or we can look at it objectively.
Does anyone believe what Gould is saying about sitting on his hands doing nothing about a coach for the Dogs? He is shaping something for sure. Keeping everything under wraps until he has got everything in place before an announcement is made.
I have no doubts that Sheens and Co are also working something that will be revealed when the club is ready. They jumped the gun for sure on CC and they know that us supporters are uneasy. They can read the media speculation as well as we can. They know NRL 360 is roasting us daily - but they clearly have an outcome and a plan to get there and aren't about to be forced into making an announcement by Fix TV. As painful as it is for us it is something we should be take strength from. They are doing the due dilligence to get the best possible outcome.
We just have to trust, that under the guidance of Sheens, the club will make the right strategic decision and stop taking an accountants approach to building a successful team.
