I agree that we will be better placed to judge when expectations are more realistically set next season. Coming off a 9th place disaster season, everyone was expecting us to be scrapping around the bottom of the playoff places.
Not to take anything away from the incredible achievements of Lord this year, but next year will be interesting when fans (and probably ownership) will be targeting silverware and a strong league position.
I will also be interested to see how he manages the off-season. Clearly he's got a tightly-knit group of players here, but I wonder if he will look to strengthen any areas? I also wonder whether he will be able to afford to keep them all. Although he may have got them cheap this season, players like Hotham, Martin and Hudson will command a lot of attention from other clubs. I can see the Arena teams offering Hotham big money to leave (tough 20 goal D-men don't come around often), and Lord might therefore need to increase his wage. That will require compromise in other areas of the team potentially, and I think that's where we will see how good a coach he is. If he can hang on to most of the team without breaking the bank, that's an excellent indication to me that he's as good a coach as we all think and hope.
Tommy