Broncos coach Michael Maguire has been urged to “read the room” and adapt or die in Brisbane, but others believe the players are the problem.
Maguire was hired to guide the Broncos’ star-studded roster to a drought-breaking premiership, but things appear to be unravelling quickly at Red Hill.
Brisbane have lost four of their past five games while playing wildly inconsistent football as the side struggled to adjust to Maguire’s tough approach.
There are rumblings of player unrest under Maguire but the same chatter was coming out of the club under Kevin Walters, who the board ruthlessly sacked last October just 12 months after going to the grand final.
The NRL 360 panel were divided on Tuesday night as to where the blame should lay for the Broncos’ struggles over the past five weeks.
“Everyone knows the Broncos coaching position is probably the toughest in the game, it’s the biggest club, it has the most members and a lot of coaches have struggled up there aside from Bennett, it’s hard work,” Paul Crawley said.
“I questioned Madge’s appointment to start with, given what had unfolded at the Rabbitohs and what had unfolded at the Tigers. I thought it would eventually end in tears but I wasn’t so sure there would be trouble 10 rounds into the season, that’s the biggest concern.”
“But I think that’s only natural. Is anyone surprised that Michael Maguire is a little bit too intense for Brisbane players? He’s got a reputation that precedes him.
“When Michael Maguire got the job, remember he said the NSW job and Kiwi job had mellowed him and that he’d changed as a coach… well, not necessarily.
“But the proof will be in the pudding, we’re 10 rounds in and they’re seventh on the ladder. Let’s just judge him when he gets to the end of the season.”
Broncos legend Gordon Tallis called out the players for complaining under two very different coaches.
“The players didn’t like Kevvie and he was maybe a softer and more of an attacking coach and now there’s Madge who’s at the other end (of the scale) so who do they like?” Tallis said.
“Players whinged last year and they’re whinging this year, well what do they want?”
“If you look at the coaches, they’re polar opposites, Kevvie and Madge,” Braith Anasta responded.
“They were complaining about Kevvie last year and now they’re complaining about Madge.
“They were also going to complain about Madge because he was going in there to do a job, train them hard and the way he approaches players, you can see the difference in the two personalities, they were always going to be a little bit shell-shocked.
“But Madge would have hoped by now they would have got used to it, bought in and understood why he’s doing what he’s doing but it doesn’t seem to be the case.”
Crawley believes Maguire must adapt to his players, but Tallis wasn’t having it.
“He has to read the room. He had this problem at South Sydney, when he won the comp in 2014 I remember Richo saying he’s got a job for life and they sacked him in three years,” Crawley said.
“Then he went to the Tigers and the same dramas unfolded.
“He has to read the room, if it is a problem, he has to realise it’s a problem and he has to make some changes because at the end of the day you can put it back on the players but it’s the coaches responsibility to get the best out of the players.”
Tallis fired back: “But they signed him to be Michael Maguire, you can’t be two different things.”