Peter Badel: Josh McGuire’s Cowboys switch haunts Brisbane Broncos
Losing Andrew McCullough, James Roberts and Kodi Nikorima was a concern for Brisbane, but nothing compares to the unsanswered questions around Josh McGuire’s sudden departure, PETER BADEL writes.
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THE sight of Josh McGuire starring for the Cowboys last Saturday is the most damning single snapshot of what is wrong with the Broncos, who remain haunted by the mysterious departure of the man they call “Moose”.
For all the recruiting twists and turns at Red Hill over the past 18 months, from coach Anthony Seibold releasing Andrew McCullough, James Roberts and Kodi Nikorima to signing Ben Te’o and Issac Luke, the loss of McGuire has cut deepest.
To this day, no one at the Broncos has ever fully explained to their 37,000 members how the NRL’s richest club simply said farewell to a Queensland Origin player who provided the big-match mongrel they are now craving.
McGuire’s departure was as swift as it was unfathomable, the gravity of his off-season move to North Queensland overshadowed by the coaching firestorm involving Seibold and Wayne Bennett.
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Like everything at Red Hill at the moment, McGuire’s exit made no sense. It still doesn’t. It is one of the club’s worst roster-management decisions of the past 20 years, Brisbane ostensibly gifting the Cowboys an Origin and Test player who spilt blood in 194 NRL games for the Broncos.
Getting to the bottom of the McGuire mystery is akin to curing coronavirus, but now, almost two years later, the truth, or most of it, has emerged.
Bennett has been consistently blamed for letting McGuire walk, but for the first time today, the former Broncos coach lifts the lid on the Queensland lock’s departure, the timing of which makes for a compelling probe.
Seibold was officially announced as Brisbane’s coach for the 2020 season on October 31, 2018. By December 3, following Bennett’s shock sacking, Seibold’s arrival at Red Hill was accelerated for the 2019 season.
McGuire’s lucrative four-year Cowboys deal was announced on November 19, 2018 — some 19 days after Seibold was initially named as Bennett’s eventual successor.
The NRL conspiracy theorists have a view that the timing of Seibold’s announcement as Bennett’s replacement gave him sufficient time to peruse Brisbane’s roster and jettison any player who did not fit his vision.
Seibold has consistently maintained he had nothing to do with McGuire’s release, correctly pointing to the fact Bennett was still in charge at the Broncos. Intriguingly, both Seibold and McGuire are managed by Isaac Moses, the code’s No.1 player agent who is currently appealing an NRL suspension.
At Red Hill, McGuire was not everyone’s cup of tea. He was a brilliant trainer and hard-as-nails but some of the younger group felt intimidated by McGuire. Bennett was aware of this. When McGuire considered a release in 2017, Bennett talked Moose around, giving the hardman the compassion he felt he needed.
Twelve months later, at the end of the 2018 season, Bennett had big plans for McGuire. Senior enforcer Sam Thaiday had just retired.
In mid-October, just before Bennett headed to the UK to coach the England team, he called McGuire into his office and told him he needed him to step up for Thaiday in 2019. McGuire nodded. Bennett flew out for England convinced McGuire was content at the Broncos.
Then something strange happened. McGuire approached Broncos recruitment chief Peter Nolan seeking an extension on his Broncos deal. He already had two years to run but when he requested a 12-month upgrade, the Broncos baulked due to salary cap issues.
The Cowboys pounced, armed with a three-year extension. Bennett still cannot believe McGuire is wearing Cowboys colours when he should be Brisbane’s forward spearhead under Seibold.
“The truth is I never wanted to lose Josh,” Bennett says.
“I had a meeting two weeks before Josh sought a release and it revolved around him taking more responsibility for 2019.
“We had a good relationship, so I was surprised two weeks later when Peter Nolan intimated to me that Josh didn’t want to be at the club.
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“In the end, I felt there was more to it than I’d been told. But at that stage things were deteriorating at the club in relation to my future. I was being told I was the coach for 2019 but I didn’t feel like I was going to be.
“When I first left the Broncos in 2008, I told the club to keep Josh McGuire. He loved that club. He was earmarked for the Broncos from the age of 14. But the wheeling and dealing took place and Josh was lost to the Cowboys.”
So if Bennett never wanted to lose McGuire, who sent him packing to the Cowboys? Like a Jack the Ripper mystery, the full answers may never be found.