Brisbane Broncos pushed to limit in brutal first day of 2025 pre-season under Michael Maguire
Michael Maguire made no apologies for making his players train in 30 degree heat on day one of pre-season, conditions which left many vomiting. This is the Broncos’ new world under no-nonsense Madge, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.
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Marty Taupau announced yesterday he would play one last season with the Broncos … by 3.20pm he probably wished he retired.
By the end of the Broncos’ first on-field training session of the year there were moments when Taupau was barely able to stay upright.
At the end of the session, totally spent, he wobbled like a sailor in an overseas port wending his way home after a big night.
The big man vomited several times and there were points of a brutally hard training session where other players clapped him home and draped cold packages around his shoulders.
In a way, the very sight of Taupau was inspiring because at age 34, when the pipe and slippers were calling, he was giving everything he had.
Somehow he managed to finish the session, gutsy son of a so-and-so that he is.
This is the Broncos’ new world under no-nonsense coach Michael Maguire, who made no apology for giving the Broncos a 100 minute session starting at 1.30pm in 30 degree heat after a weights session in the morning.
The team will train again Tuesday ... and Wednesday. Their first NRL game in March must seem like a moon ride away.
Maguire makes no apologies for setting high standards. He will go hard, then eventually go home but won’t die wondering.
“That is the norm,’’ Maguire said of the session.
During fitness tests conducted behind closed doors last week the most important accessory for players as they rode bikes and tackled rowing machines was a bin or a bucket. Many vomited.
By asking a lot of the squad early there will be a ripple effect where players phone more experienced teammates who are allowed to return at a later date and say “you getter get down here otherwise you could get left behind.’’
Some players like hooker Blake Mozer seemed to enjoy the challenge of it and finished near the front of every pack they joined.
Maguire was once an assistant coach of the Melbourne Storm and Monday’s session had echoes of one of those sessions Cameron Smith used to talk about where Storm players actually vomited before the session because they knew what was coming.
Hard-nosed Maguire is who he is and initially it will be up to the players to adjust to his ways and not the other way around.
He has a mandate from the club to go in hard and, as he stood in the middle of the field watching his squad sweat and strain in the early afternoon sun he looked like a man content with where he was and what he was doing.
He will face some intriguing challenges including gifted but enigmatic back Selwyn Cobbo.
The Broncos have allowed Cobbo to go to open market after not recontracting him before the November 1 deadline but that may not be a bad result for Maguire.
Cobbo’s stocks have fallen in the past year and there appears to be no great queue from clubs to sign him.
The message from the market – be careful your value is slipping – is more powerful than anything the coach could tell him.
He is one of many pieces in a complex puzzle that must be solved if the Broncos are to end their 18 year premiership drought.
SEE THE PHOTOS BELOW.
Originally published as Brisbane Broncos pushed to limit in brutal first day of 2025 pre-season under Michael Maguire
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