He's a rookie coach in his second year. He has a lot to learn, I'm sure he'd be the first to admit it, so why doesn't he get the same grace as the young players? There's only one way to get experience and I can guarantee with his mindset, he will be reflecting a lot on this year and we'll see a different coach/team next year. Has any other team has as disrupted of a season as us? Tbh we're doing well just to make the finals...
If we still had WB, I speculate that we'd still likely have the majority of the players we've let go and as a result would likely have lost one or some of the young guns. I don't believe under WB we would be top 4, but there's no way to tell anyway. All I have to base my opinion on is that Souths are in 3rd with worse stats than our 2017 campaign and they have a far superior spine, plus have not had the issues with injury to key players that we've had this year.
In regards to going backwards...the yo-yo-ing downward trajectory is:
2015 finished 2nd (17-7, +195), we know what happened in the GF.
2016 finished 5th (15-9, +120), won the first final, rested week 2, knocked out wk 3.
2017 finished 3rd (16-8, +164), lost wk 1 final, won wk 2, belted in wk 3.
2018 finished 6th (15-9, +56), we know what happened in finals wk 1.
2019 finished (provisionally) 8th (11-1-12, -57), likely to get belted in finals week 1.
I didn't say we've gone forwards this year, objectively on results we have not. Though in my opinion, when you take the inexperience/injuries/disruption that has severely impacted this year, I believe the experience our young guys (and coach) have picked up will be invaluable in years to come.