The worrying thing for John Kirwan is that true or not, when reports first broke that the Blues were tapping up a replacement, no one contested the sense of such a decision.
There were immediate doubts about whether the timing was appropriate: having continually expressed confidence in Kirwan, the Blues board would appear either mentally weak or incompetent if their faith could be crushed in only three weeks.
Nor does anyone like such clumsy and indeed nasty recruitment ploys. Kirwan has been relentlessly open, transparent and honest while coach of the Blues and whatever his longer term future with the franchise, he at the very least should expect reciprocal treatment.
But as to whether the Blues would be considering finding a new coach for next year..? No one doubted that was possible. If not probable.
Results will now determine Kirwan's future. Since he took the job in 2013, he's been given ample leeway to fix matters behind the scenes.