Michael Maguire signing is proof Wests Tigers are finally growing up
FOR years Wests Tigers have teased fans, showing glimpses of something that has always been elusive and, except for 2005, too often failing when the heat was applied. That has all changed.
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BENNY Elias did not miss Ivan Cleary.
Bouncing Benny, who shoots straight and fast from the lip, was on the Macquarie Sports Radio breakfast show Monday and began the interview with a nice slice of unintended irony.
“I’m presently in Indonesia, so there might be a little a bit of delay there,” he said.
Bouncing Benny’s legion of fans and critics alike knew exactly what he didn’t mean. No delay this time, though.
Elias was sharp and pointed about Cleary’s decision to leave Wests Tigers for Penrith with two years still to run.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful and not acceptable,” Elias said.
“All I want to say is shame on Ivan Cleary for what he’s done. There’s been no excuse and there’s been no reason for that.”
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Cleary’s reasons for walking out two years early were widely regarded as a desire to coach his son Nathan at Penrith. It is also known Cleary is tired of rebuilding teams.
He told the Panthers he believed the Tigers over-achieved this season, the unspoken part being how hard it would be to repeat that success.
Penrith, instead, are ready-made. The Panthers were building towards a run at a premiership this season before their campaign was derailed by coach Anthony Griffin’s sacking four weeks out from the finals and a handover to a rookie coach.
The Tigers have now hired Michael Maguire. His successes and failures will be followed as closely as Cleary’s at Penrith.
The greatest indicator that Maguire is ready to succeed is not necessarily his track record, which indicates he is capable of turning premiership weaklings into legitimate contenders.
He rebuilt Wigan into a premiership success in the English Super League and raised the Titanic by coaching South Sydney to their first premiership in 43 years.
He was accused of becoming predictable and unbending at Souths. The game plan was direct and simple.
Maguire coached a power game, drawing criticism for their lack of flair in 2014 when Wayne Bennett, who was coaching Newcastle, described them as “predictable”.
The often unquoted part of Bennett’s assessment was that while the game plan might be predictable, the problem was trying to stop it.
Maguire learnt his trade at Melbourne under Craig Bellamy and took what he knew to Wigan, where he won the premiership, the Challenge Cup, and then replicated premiership success at Souths.
But success can be a bad teacher. When the players won the premiership and lost some of their appetite, Maguire was unable to get them to give what they once gave and, because he could not bend, it eventually turned bad.
Players complained about going into games sore, for example, such was their physicality at training. Once slights like that got cemented down it made it easy for the club to sack him when the Rabbitohs tailed off in the win column.
Maguire did not allow himself to get bitter. He used his time wisely after he was sacked. He worked with the referees at the NRL and kept his head in the game. His eyes eventually opened to the fact there are different paths to success.
Part of it was what was happening at Souths. Anthony Seibold took them from 12th to third with essentially the same roster, except for Dane Gagai and Greg Inglis, who was back from injury.
Seibold changed the Rabbitohs’ attack, playing with more width, and received wide praise.
But in the end it still depended on punch through the middle and when the Roosters shut them down in the ruck in the preliminary final, South Sydney could find no Plan B and out they went.
The Roosters figured them just as “predictable” as ever, as most teams are. It was just a different predictability.
Everybody had long forgotten Maguire was wearing the rap for it.
The Tigers have looked past that by appointing him. He returns to coaching now with the Tigers as a better coach. He knows there is no certain formula.
Like a solid attack there are principles that must allow for personality.
The Tigers showed a capacity for hard work under Cleary last season and will need every bit of that appetite with Maguire. But they should be brave. His hiring is solid proof that the Tigers are finally growing up.
For years the Tigers have teased fans, showing glimpses of something that has always been elusive and, except for 2005, too often failing when the heat was applied.
They spoke to a background noise of premiership dreams without ever really having the constitution to deliver.
Maguire changes all that, and comes back a better coach than when he was at Souths.
He coaches like Bouncing Benny talks. There is no room left for excuses.
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Originally published as Michael Maguire signing is proof Wests Tigers are finally growing up
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