NRL 2021: No Pressure relief for Michael Maguire and West Tigers

Thankfully the Tigers were brave enough to show there’s a place for a hardened coach who won’t pussyfoot around a soft playing roster, writes DEAN RITCHIE.

Michael Maguire needs a fast start next year or the Wests Tigers could unravel . (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

BRAVO, Wests Tigers.

You may be fumble and bumble around at times but at least you’ve got a backbone.

After a week of unnecessary and damaging speculation, Michael Maguire has been retained as head coach.

Maguire is old school and unyielding – traits which draw disapproval in this soft, PC world.

Retaining Maguire shows there is still a place for a hardened coach who won’t pussyfoot around and kowtow to a playing roster with a soft underbelly.

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Thank heavens the Wests Tigers board could see what Michael Maguire brings to the table. Picture: NRL Photos

A coach who refuses to tone down his dogged demeanour for fearing of upsetting a player who may sulk and demand a release.

He won’t grovel to wimps.

We should never have even been discussing Maguire’s future.

Madge is the head coach, he has two years left on his current deal and he in the right man to lead this club back to some sort of credibility.

Under pressure from noisy outside influences, most clubs would have turned to jelly and axed their coach.

Maguire refuses to tone down his dogged demeanous for fear of upsetting players. Picture: Brett Costello

So let’s give the Wests Tigers board some credit here. They have some starch about them.

They stared down the criticism and temptation to dump Maguire and stuck solid; a rare show of loyalty in a cutthroat game.

Five of the eight Wests Tigers directors are Western Suburbs-aligned.

Those Magpies board members showed some old Lidcombe working class spirit and gumption on Tuesday to retain Maguire.

It was a decision which would made the greatest Magpie, Tom Terrific, proud.

All hell to break loose in Tigers debacle

By Brent Read

The sideshow is over but don’t get too comfortable if you are a Wests Tigers fan. The club will be given some breathing space over the off-season but come round one next year, the pressure on the Tigers and coach Michael Maguire will be unrelenting.

Maguire will be under the gun and the Tigers will need to be a strong club — stronger than they have shown thus far — if they are to withstand what is coming.

Every loss will be a disaster. Every defeat a reflection on the decision that was made this week to retain faith with Maguire when people within the club would have preferred to head in another direction.

Michael Maguire is facing the most important off-season of his career.

Chair Lee Hagipantelis insists there will be no deadlines. No demands for Maguire to win or face the axe. No eight weeks — the standard time frame for coaches under siege — to save his job.

That’s easy to say but should they start next season like they finished this one, the club will have no choice but to act. The Tigers can’t afford another year of abject failure.

As a result, Maguire is facing the most important off-season of his career. There is no question there were people within the Tigers with an appetite to move in a different direction. Hence the stories emanating from the club that suggested Maguire was about to be axed.

Ultimately, it appears those who felt a change was in order didn’t have the numbers to remove the coach after Maguire convinced enough people on the board that he deserved another chance.

He saved his job after agreeing to change his staff and in many respects, his ways. Yet those who know Maguire know change isn’t easy.

For a long time his methods were successful but in recent years, the results have been barren and explain why we have arrived at this point.

This has been his fifth successive year without a team in the finals. His win percentage over that period is less than 40 per cent.

Wild Wests: Tales of Tiger Town provided a window into his methods and the sense was that they were stale and outdated.

In fairness to Maguire, his passion and commitment to his players also shone through. Perhaps putting a broom through his support staff will help. Change might work over the holidays.

Wests Tigers and the coach need to get busy with the cheque book.

The more immediate concern is to make some headway in the player market and strengthen a roster that simply isn’t good enough.

The Tigers have money to burn and a desire to spend it. There was a freeze on signing players while they awaited a decision on their coach.

Yet discussions continued with potential targets over the weekend and with Maguire now confirmed as the coach for next season, they are in position to move with relative speed.

Maguire and Wests Tigers will need to get off to a flyer next season.

There have been suggestions Maguire has struggled to attract players and the off-season will give him a chance to prove the critics are wrong. Heaven knows, he needs more talent to work with.

The squad needs to be strengthened but Maguire may need to convince some players to stay given speculation that there are members of the squad not exactly excited at the prospect of another year under the coach.

It could be an interesting off-season as the Tigers attempt to get off to a flyer next year. If they can’t, expect all hell to break loose.

Originally published as NRL 2021: No Pressure relief for Michael Maguire and West Tigers