He doesnt need to exceed expectations he just has to meet them. What was the clubs 3 year plan? Top 8 last year, top 4 this year. I know you hate talking about defence but he has taken us backwards in defence. The funny part is if you call out taylor on these things its because its a personal thing, what a joke. Having an opinion on the coach does not make me or anyone else less of a supporter than someone who blindly follows the coach no matter what.
Well written. We didn't make the 8 last year and there is already talk of softening the Top 4 target this year. Why? So JT is not held accountable. The targets are a furphy, because we know JT is a protected species despite all the rhetoric which suggests otherwise. And as you have correctly written, having an opinion does not make you less or a supporter only one which recognises this club has gone backwards on the field under Taylor.
I hardly think JT is a protected species. The knives were out for him last year, and bet your bottom dollar they will be out again this year if Tigers have a run of losses. Taylor is not hugely popular across the media, not particularly respected amongst fans and under huge pressure to get a historically poor resulted team to the finals.
Or put it this way, if Taylor gets Tigers to the finals in 2017, it will be only the 4th time it's happened in 18 seasons. People can say that it's not asking much to make the finals, but clearly for the Tigers, it's asking a lot.
In terms of the public "3 year plan" for results, I think some people look into this too hard. Of course teams aim to make the finals and then improve on the previous seasons - that is standard for sports clubs and what fans expect. Nobody is going to realistically plan to come 8th in the second year and hope to achieve the same result in the 3rd year. No business sets public budgets that are flat or worse than last year, it ruins public sentiment.
So I don't think you can realistically say Tigers are softening their 3rd-year plan excessively if they are happy with less than a Top 4 finish. Nor is it realistic that they would reduce their target for the sole purpose of keeping Jason Taylor in his job as a "protected species". The club have made it clear they want management stability and intelligent spending, as much as any on-field results. Plans should also adapt based on recent performance.
In the last 5 years, only 5 sides have made the Top 4 more than once; 10 sides have made it total. It's not realistic for most clubs to think they are going to be in the Top 4 on a regular basis, that's just not how things work.
Both of you also have this thing about Tigers going backwards under Taylor. I simply can't understand how you can support this overall. I'm a stats person and in 2015 I made a point of how Tigers did better in defence versus Potter years. A lot of negative feedback was along the lines of "you can make stats say anything", "maybe we concede less points overall but our defence is not powerful enough", "sure defence was improved but our position on the table was still unacceptable", "our defence did improve but I think it was at the expense of the attack" (aka the old Taylorball argument).
So sure, defence was improved in 2015 but we came 15th, so really what good did it do us? For me, it was the start of seeing changes where I felt they were needed most, even if the results didn't come straight away. Then last year we came 9th and it sucked to miss the finals, but it was the best table result since 2011\. But no, T4L wants to go back to the defence argument now as it suits, that the defence got worse in 2016 and despite the better win frequency, we are apparently going backwards.
So if you take that approach, you will find some element of club performance that does not improve year on year. If you look hard enough, you'll find something where Taylor is overseeing some drop in performance. Of course that argument works the other way, it works that you can also find modest improvements to support the coach.
But after coming 10th, 15th, 13th, 15th since 2012, how can 9th not be an improvement? I don't get it.
Let me take you back to one game and this will tell you why defence is so important. LO round 26, season on the line, win and make semis, packed crowd, day game, beautiful weather…. Tell me the halftime score again..... Same thing a few backs against the panthers. Tigers have natural attacking flair all over the park and again I will say it Taylor's whole philosophy is about defence. You don't believe me listen to the man himself:
"_Defence is number one for us because we have been really, really poor in the past. "
"We’ve got to change that and if you want to be in the top eight in the NRL you need to get yourself up the ladder as far as the defensive performances go."_
I wouldn't know him from a bar of soap to dislike or like him. But do I dislike some of his coaching decisions yes. I would love for us to have a break out year in 2017 and make finals and if we do sure give him an extension. But if we don't then see ya later. You all gave him excuses for last year like Farah undermining him, second tier cap, young team. That's all behind us now , so no excuses this year.
