Sacked: Which NRL coach will fail to see out the season?

You would think it would take a catastrophe for the club to dump him mid-season, but there are some heavy KPI’s Kevin Walters must meet at the Broncos. We look at coaches under pressure.

It’s the NRL’s most unwanted club for coaches.

And right here are 17 reasons why Michael Maguire, Trent Barrett, Anthony Griffin and Kevvie Walters are all fighting for survival.

As pressure mounts to see who will be the first coaching domino to fall this season, Fox Sports Stats show it is all but guaranteed at least one of these men won’t see out the season.

The complete list of coaches sacked mid-season over the past decade shows Jason Taylor holds the record for copping a bullet in the back the quickest. Taylor lasted just three rounds in 2017 before Wests Tigers were lapped 46-6 by the Canberra Raiders and the Tigers board made the call to make Taylor another of their many coaching scapegoats.

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Which NRL coach will be sacked mid-season?

Last year it was John Morris who got his marching orders after five rounds when Cronulla appointed Craig Fitzgibbon for 2022 and put Josh Hannay in as caretaker.

In 2020 there were five coaches axed mid-season, namely Stephen Kearney at the Warriors (round six), Dean Pay at the Bulldogs (round nine), Paul Green at the Cowboys (round 10), Paul McGregor at the Dragons (round 14) and Anthony Seibold at the Broncos (round 15)., With the exception of 2016, there has been at least one coach relieved of his duties mid-year in every season since 2013.

Only Nathan Brown and Anthony Griffin have made it back as NRL head coaches, while most reappear in jobs ranging from assistants to pathways and recruitment.

In 2022 these are the four coaches who look to be in the biggest danger.

The pressure is mounting on Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire. Picture: Mark Evans/Getty Images

MICHAEL MAGUIRE

SAFETY RATING: Extreme danger

You consistently hear Tigers players come out in support of Maguire and pay tribute to all the hard work he puts in behind the scenes.

The flip side of that is it’s hard to remember seeing a bunch of players who look so miserable. This is supposed to be a game where young men are living the dream and having fun doing it. Yet the Tigers play like they may as well be digging trenches.

While there is huge respect for the fact Maguire was a premiership-winning coach at South Sydney and with Wigan in the Super League, what can’t be ignored is his methods just aren’t working here.

This has been the Tigers’ worst start in the joint-venture’s history, without a win in five rounds, and in Maguire’s fourth season in charge they are going backwards.

The Tigers have been dreadful this season. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

They were absolutely dreadful last weekend and shuffling a few deck chairs, including moving Luke Brooks from halfback to five-eighth, is not going to fix the problem long term.

If the Eels run up another big score against them at CommBank Stadium on Monday, it’s hard to see how the Tigers board can continue to sit on their hands and do nothing.

Last year the Sharks made a huge call when they let Morris go to clear the path for Fitzgibbon. Initially the move was met with fierce criticism because it did seem heartless and unfair at the time, and it probably did end up costing the Sharks the chance of playing finals footy last year.

But what it also did was give Fitzgibbon the chance to make some tough calls on who he did and didn’t want to keep. It also opened the door for the new coach to use his pulling power to recruit Dale Finucane and Nicho Hynes, and that has made a massive difference now.

It’s no wonder many now see it as the blueprint the Tigers need to follow so they don’t end up in the same position this time next season.

TRENT BARRETT

SAFETY RATING: High danger

Phil Gould is a massive Barrett fan and so you’d imagine the Bulldogs general manager will do everything he can to protect his coach.

But one thing history also shows is Gould isn’t scared to pull the trigger when he thinks things aren’t working.

He did it with a “tired” Ivan Cleary at the Panthers, while Griffin was also moved on when the Panthers were sitting equal-fourth just weeks out from the finals in 2018.

While no one really expected the Dogs to be a premiership contender this year, there was certainly a lot of expectation.

The Bulldogs just can’t score points. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

One thing we all thought they would be able to do is score points given the injection of attacking weapons such as Matt Burton, Josh Addo-Carr, Matt Dufty, Tevita Pangai Jr and Brent Naden.

But so far after five rounds, the Dogs have the NRL’s worst attack – just 40 points scored – and third worst defence – 109 conceded.

In fairness, they just came off back-to-back games against Panthers and Storm, and in their

favour on Friday night is they have caught the Bunnies at an opportune time with Latrell Mitchell injured (hamstring) and Cody Walker is struggling.

ANTHONY GRIFFIN

SAFETY RATING: Moderate danger

Griffin is another coach clearly feeling the heat in respect to results and roster management.

Even though he signed an extension before this season, fans are understandably growing sick and tired of their team just making up the numbers year after year.

At least when McGregor was handed his contract extension, it came after the Dragons were beaten by three field goals in the 2018 preliminary final and started 2019 by winning four of the first six.

In Griffin’s case, they lost their final eight games last year and the only win in their opening five this year was against the Warriors in round one.

Admittedly, they have had a tough run with the Panthers, Sharks, Eels and Rabbitohs in succession.

The Dragons gifted coach Anthony Griffin a pre-season extension. Picture Dragons Media

But in this business, results matter so Griffin must find a way to turn it around in next three games against Knights, Roosters and Tigers.

In respect to the criticism around the dumping of youngsters fullback Tyrell Sloan and five-eighth Junior Amone, it is justifiable. On the surface it seems a valid explanation how Griffin is saying this has been done to protect the young players and help their development.

But you’d think if the Dragons had concerns about trusting two inexperienced players in such crucial positions, this should have been addressed when the roster was being put together, not by throwing the kids under the bus after three rounds.

What is crystal clear is Moses Mbye is not an NRL fullback and Jack Bird not a five-eighth, and it hasn’t fixed their defence because the Dragons are still conceding the most points (144) of any NRL team.

Broncos coach Kevin Walters is rated pretty safe by Paul Crawley. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

KEVVIE WALTERS

SAFETY RATING: Low to moderate danger

Like with Griffin, Kevvie was given a contract extension to try and limit the talk about his job security.

In this instance it was probably justified given the mess he’d taken over and the fact he is a club legend.

The reality is it would take a catastrophe for the club to dump him mid-season.

But with Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins entering the competition next season, it’s crucial the Broncos take a significant step forward in the coming months. They can do this by lowering the gap between their best and worst performances.

While it may not necessarily come down to making the eight for Kevvie to be safe, you’d want to see consistently competitive performances like they produced against the Roosters and Rabbitohs, not how they played against the Cowboys and Warriors.