Yes, SJ will be well aware of the performance pressure weighing upon him and the team. His reputation is on the line not just from brokers and analysts but also from significant shareholders who took drastic action to remove PB and appointed him two years ago.
Some of the brokers and analysts in the news article might have been light doing their bit of homework on the June qtr's report. It did state that in the 12 months from 1 July 2017, Au production guidance would be 170koz, which was reiterated in the last presentation. But it didn't say that production would be evenly distributed across the 4 qtrs at 42.5koz pq.
Also, the brokers and analysts might be peeved off by the creative accounting done on the stockpile valuation, which was raised by the auditors as a key audit matter. Taking into account the context at that time, SJ and his team had inherited a dire financial position from PB. So as to implement an urgent remedial process without alarming the market thereby driving the sp even lower (remember it was very low at that time), he had to make commercial-in-confidence decisions that are now open to scrutiny. But I won't critique SJ's decisions and actions in the wisdom of hindsight as it is not helpful to delve into what-ifs, shoulda, coulda, yaddiyadda...
Based on the Dec qtr production guidance of 60koz, the 12 mths' target of 170koz still looks achievable, albeit SJ is cutting it thin: 28K + 60K + 41K + 41K = 170K. But SJ and team must deliver. And no more creative accounting to hide costs. In fact, this is a good time for spring cleaning the financials.
For those of us who see a glass half-full, we focus on the milestones achieved and accept that the recent Au production shortfall is a price to pay for a brighter long-term future. I believe this camp is fine to wait just a bit longer and invest a bit more faith into SJ & team.
For those who see a glass half-empty, the milestones achieved are just not good enough to compensate for the production shortfall. Some might even see murky motives, secret agenda or excessive self-interest. Ok, for them it's a very hard world out there.
