The NRL clubs that don’t respect for their coach only end up hurting themselves, writes Paul Kent

NRL coaches have copped shabby treatment in recent weeks. So the sooner they start a union, the safer it will be for them all, writes PAUL KENT.

There are conflicting accounts of Michael Maguire’s sacking. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

COACHES have copped shabby treatment in recent weeks.

For reasons nobody knows, Neil Henry was dismissed immediately at the Gold Coast. No payout.

Des Hasler was led to believe a heads of agreement was legally binding so he took himself out of the market in April and was sacked in September, his crumpled agreement still in his hand.

Michael Maguire was blindsided by the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

For several years, Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has advocated a coaches’ union to protect the rights of coaches and now it appears not just certain, but necessary.

The sooner all coaches get on board the safer for them.

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Clubs have adopted a dangerous new policy of not only sacking coaches before their contracts run out but refusing to pay out their full contracted amount.

Better to play the odds and settle out of court.

Clubs are running roughshod over the men who not long before were entrusted to set the agenda for their club. They determined not just the club’s success but also their values.

Pretty quickly, out the door they go.

This began to be addressed on NRL 360 on Monday night when Phil Rothfield revealed Henry’s non payout and the Rabbitohs were called on their own behaviour.

You could put a clock to it, but on Monday a spokesman for the Rabbitohs called, under instructions, to gently put the alternative spin on events.

It is the new way of the club. Send in the hired help with the Rabbitohs’ version, which was pure fantasy.

There are conflicting accounts of Michael Maguire’s sacking. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

The Rabbitohs claim they did not decide to sack Maguire until the Tuesday afternoon of the board meeting at which he was notified.

They said he could not address the players because it was 5.30pm and they had already left for the day.

He was paid out in full and negotiations about his payout were cordial and even friendly. No hard feelings.

Maguire had no idea he was being sacked.

The Friday night of the Rabbitohs’ last game, four days before he was sacked, I was on the Professor’s Second Year Syndrome on Fox Sports with Rothfield when the Professor asked if we had any breaking news.

He does this. It was unprompted and the first thought that came concerned a text sent to me that afternoon that read, and I quote: “Just told by a Souths trainer that tonight’s game is the coaches [sic] last with the club.”

It was not entirely new information.

Several weeks earlier I was told that Maguire was heading to Warrington in the UK Super League and that Anthony Siebold would take over.

We spoke about it on Triple M one Sunday afternoon several weeks earlier, declaring it a rumour but also wondering how it was possible.

Any attempt to get confirmation from the club was quickly shut down. This text, though, given who it was from, was confirmation enough.

Along the way Maguire also heard the speculation but even as the conversation grew louder he did not believe it.

The Souths trainer knew, though. So did plenty of others.

Maguire had no idea when he went into the board meeting that his fate had been decided.

When the news broke it was fast and unexpected, by most, and everybody applauded the way Souths handled it.

The truth is much different.

Maguire had no idea his club was trying to provide him with a soft landing by attracting Warrington’s interest or that other negotiations were going on around him, or that people he was trusting were instead fixing him up.

The good South Sydney people, though, the true South Sydney people, are angered by the club’s decision to sack the coach three seasons after he won the club’s first premiership in 43 years.

Last week The Burrow, Souths’ supporter group, took Maguire to lunch to thank him.

Souths Juniors boss Henry Morris, one of the great champions of the game, plans to soon put on a celebration at his club for Maguire, and any South Sydney fan who wants to thank Maguire and drink for free is welcome.

Neil Henry didn’t even get a pay-off after being sacked. (Matt King/Getty Images)

Henry was similarly blindsided by the Titans.

The Titans, owned and somewhat operated by the NRL, manufactured a reason to justify their legal position, some trumped up accusation about his handling of Jarryd Hayne.

So instead of being paid out, they sacked him.

If nothing else, with the club going through the sale process it certainly looks better on the bottom line to be without a $400,000 liability still owing.

And certainly without the $1.2 million liability it would cost to sack Hayne and keep the coach, as they should have done.

Already the Titans have begun to weaken from their dodgy grounds and offered Henry a $100,000 payout.

So as Henry negotiates, Laurie Daley is shortening as the man to replace him.

Des Hasler looks to be heading to court with the Bulldogs. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Daley firmed in the Titans picture early. The Titans insist the process is open and everybody interviewed stands a chance, but it is impossible not to have preconceived thoughts.

The only coach ahead of Daley was Kevin Walters. He lost interest in the job early but that has not dissuaded the Titans.

Daley’s appeal goes beyond his five seasons as NSW coach. The Titans see him as best placed to sell the club off the field.

Not just a coach but a man able to help market the club as it fights to survive on the Gold Coast under new ownership, and no longer with the parachute of NRL funding.

The Titans have completely overlooked the critical criteria to make any club attractive: success.

Probably most troubling for the club is that the reasons for preferring Daley strike a familiar note.

It sounds a lot like what they said about Jarryd Hayne a little more than 12 months ago, which began all this in the first place.

Originally published as The NRL clubs that don’t respect for their coach only end up hurting themselves, writes Paul Kent