The hard lessons and tough times that moulded Broncos coach Michael Maguire

Michael Maguire’s perseverance was inherited from his “workaholic” cattle farmer father, the Broncos coach reveals how his upbringing influenced the man he is today.

Michael Maguire has detailed the phone call from a future rugby league Immortal that launched his coaching career and revealed how his own personal “nightmare” helped deliver him to the Broncos.

Maguire will feel a distinct tug at his heart strings when the Broncos coach travels to a place he knows all too well for Saturday night’s clash with Ricky Stuart’s Raiders in Canberra.

The gargantuan Brisbane brand is entering its 37th year and for 34 seasons, the Broncos have been coached by Queenslanders, fuelling a sentiment that ‘foreigners’ simply don’t understand the DNA of the NRL’s richest club.

But to understand ‘Madge’, and why his blue-collar ethos fits perfectly into the Broncos tapestry, you need to spool back to his birthplace in Canberra, a region that imparted the footballing and life lessons he lives by today.

The symmetry between the Broncos and Canberra – two glamour clubs of the late 1980s and 1990s – is irresistible and the Raiders’ golden era is the very blueprint Maguire craves as part of his Red Hill revolution.

Sticky welcomes Madge back to the capital. Picture: Boo Bailey

The Maguire families are scattered through the nation’s capital; tough-as-teak clans who value honesty and hard work.

The son of a cattle farmer, Maguire is cut from his father’s cloth. Patrick Maguire died in July 2010 after a long battle with cancer. Labelled a “crazy bastard” last week by his former Souths forward Angus Crichton, Maguire’s joys, trials and tribulations in Canberra are driving his desire to snap Brisbane’s 19-year title drought.

“Cancer eventually got Dad,” Maguire says in a rare interview about his personal life ahead of his return to Canberra for the round 2 clash at GIO Stadium.

“He was a bloody worker. He was crazy … a real workaholic.”

Asked if the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, Maguire breaks into an ironic laugh: “I think there’s a bit of dad in me.

“The old car eventually wore out.

“Dad passed away some time ago. It was actually when I was coaching at Wigan. I had to fly back to be here for his passing and I made it back, which was nice.

“My dad was well-known in rugby union circles around Canberra. He and his brothers were old farmers from Canberra. We are well-and-truly entrenched into the area. Dad would go into the mountains and chase the cattle.

“The old man’s farm was in Canberra but they had a 99-year lease and eventually got pushed off the land and put into a little suburb.

“I was born just after we left the farm, but I remember as a kid being on cousins’ farms chasing sheep and cattle.

“I loved getting out there and rounding up the cattle.”

Even in football lexicon, Maguire is still rounding up cattle. The 51-year-old has inherited a star-studded Broncos roster and last week’s 50-14 drubbing of the Roosters, in his debut as Brisbane coach, is evidence Queensland’s flagship club can win their first title since 2006.

Of course, there is a critical caveat: the Broncos must avoid the injury disaster that cruelled their 2024 campaign.

Maguire was at the coalface of that lesson at Canberra in 1993, when champion Raiders halfback Stuart – his coaching opponent on Saturday – badly broke his ankle in a 68-0 rout of the Eels two weeks before that year’s finals series.

Without their star shot-caller, the Raiders crashed out of the title race. Ironically, the Broncos went on to make history by winning the premiership from fifth place. The 1993 Green Machine were the premiers that never were. But Maguire, who missed that entire season himself due to injury, has never forgotten the standards of the Tim Sheens-coached juggernaut which has underpinned his coaching career.

Michael Maguire playing for the Raiders. Picture: Getty Images)

“I was very fortunate to play in a team with such quality players through that golden period for the Raiders,” he said.

“I was only an 18-year-old at the time, but it was a great insight into what great clubs are all about.

“It taught me a hell of a lot.

“Growing up there, my family were huge fans of the Raiders and I would go to Seiffert Oval and watch the Raiders play.

“All of a sudden, I was playing in this great team that I used to watch.

“Mal (Meninga, former Raiders captain) and Gary Belcher were my two heroes. Ricky Stuart was coming through under those guys. Dean Lance, I was a big fan of him, just the way he played, he was tough and always punched above his weight. I was close in age to Bradley Clyde, but the way he trained was phenomenal. I always loved going to training because those guys had a real crack.

(L-R) Dean Lance and Michael Maguire reunited as assistant coaches at the Storm.

“Back then, we all wanted it badly. We wanted to win. I walked into a club where players wanted to be the best. Those Raiders teams were like Origin and Test teams. Some guys were the best in their positions, so the timing for that period of my life was everything for putting me where I am now.

“I experienced so much.

“Even Craig Bellamy (Storm super coach) was at Canberra, he was captain-coach of reserve grade, he helped me in coaching and I eventually followed him to Melbourne.

“I was surrounded by blokes who were fanatical about footy, how we would improve and what we were going to do.”

Michael Maguire (L) tackled by Illawarra’s Dean Callaway while playing for Canberra in the 1995 Winfield Cup. Picture: Angelo Soulas

While a fearsome reputation as a ruthless taskmaster precedes him, Maguire believes one of his skills is relating to his players, a connection forged via his own hardships.

Handed his debut by Sheens in 1992, Maguire’s career was ripped apart by a slew of injuries. He played just 16 games in eight seasons for the Raiders and Adelaide Rams due to a shocking injury toll. He never played more than six games in a single season.

Maguire had three ankle reconstructions, multiple operations to remove cartilage from his knee and major shoulder surgery, not to mention repeated tears of his quadriceps and hamstrings.

In the end, a neck injury broke him, physically if not spiritually.

“It was ridiculous,” he says of his injury record.

“For whatever reason, I had a body that just kept falling apart. It was a walking nightmare for me.

“I would get going then fall apart again.

“For four years, I was fighting injuries. I was in and out of the team like a yo-yo and my neck injury forced me out of the game.

(L-R) Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga and then Kiwi's coach Michael Maguire have a long history together. Picture: Getty Images

“I haven’t spoken too much about all this, but it taught me a hell of a lot now as a coach. I feel I know how to connect with less fortunate players because sometimes we don’t get a free run with it.

“I look back and those experiences have shaped how I coach and how I deal with players.”

Maguire’s transition to coaching was largely serendipitous. Two years after reluctantly pulling the pin from playing, he received a surprise phone call late in 2000, with a familiar voice on the other end.

“I was lucky that I got a phone call from a great man I played with called Mal Meninga,” Maguire says.

“He was coaching Canberra and could see I was keen to be in and around that space.

“Mal said, ‘Madge, why don’t you come and coach?’

“I started out with the strength-and-conditioning side and that eventually set me on the path to coaching.

“I will always credit Big Mal for the path I’ve taken.”

Michael Maguire (R) pictured with Storm coach Craig Bellamy during his stint as an assistant coach.

Maguire has won at every level. He has delivered trophies in England and the NRL, breaking Souths’ 43-year title drought in 2014, as well as recent back-to-back triumphs with New Zealand (2023) and the NSW Origin side (2024) in the representative arena.

Now Maguire returns home on Saturday night, hoping his Broncos side produces a capital raid, then exits Canberra with an appreciation for the region that cultivated the winner in him.

“I still remember the days when the Raiders were competing against the great Broncos teams,” he said.

“There would be a Friday night game where it would be bloody chilly and cold and the Broncos would come to Canberra with their rep stars.

“They were two great teams of their era.

“It’s great that all these years on Ricky (Stuart) and myself are still around.

“The Raiders did everything possible to give me an opportunity, it’s brought me here, and I’ll always be grateful for that.”

Originally published as The hard lessons and tough times that moulded Broncos coach Michael Maguire