What’s the Buzz: The day Michael Maguire rejected Manly job

Sure, a lot of the success Penrith are enjoying at the moment can be put down to Phil Gould’s influence, but you have to know when and where to draw the line.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 21: Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire looks on during a Wests Tigers NRL training session at Gilbert Park on July 21, 2021 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Michael Maguire could have been coaching the Manly Sea Eagles in the finals series instead of fighting to save his career at the Wests Tigers.

We all make bad choices in life but, in hindsight, this one was a shocker.

Rewind to 2018 and Madge was approached by Manly owner and chairman Scott Penn to become head coach when Trent Barrett spat the dummy and infamously quit over his “backyard furniture”. On November 5, 2018, I wrote the story about Maguire rejecting the job.

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“I have informed the Sea Eagles that I’ve declined the opportunity to coach the club,” Maguire told me. “But I’d prefer not to go into the reasons why.”

Privately, he had been frightened off by Barrett’s comments about the poor high-performance and training facilities at Narrabeen and the fact Manly finished 15th that year. Somehow, he couldn’t recognise what was there in the Brookvale backyard.

Michael Maguire rejected an offer to coach the Sea Eagles in 2018. Picture: Gregg Porteous/NRL Photos

This is despite the fact they had Jake and Tom Trbojevic, Daly Cherry-Evans, Marty Taupau, Addin Fonua-Blake, Api Koroisau and a host of outstanding youngsters.

Instead, Maguire went off to coach the Kiwis in a Test series against the Kangaroos and later went for the Wests Tigers job when Ivan Cleary returned to Penrith.

The rest is history. Manly has gone on to become a premiership powerhouse and Wests Tigers have had another shocker of a year.

Penn confirmed he had met Maguire over coffee in 2018 but couldn’t convince him to take on the job. Even Fox Sports commentator James Hooper said on NRL360 at the time: “The Sea Eagles only have one man in mind … they are targeting Michael Maguire as the best fit to replace Trent Barrett.”

It wasn’t until months later that the Sea Eagles turned to Dessie Hasler to make his comeback. The fact Maguire didn’t have the vision to see the enormous potential at Manly is a concern. If he couldn’t work it out three years ago, how is he going to fix the Wests Tigers?

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Gus can’t claim all the credit at Penrith

Gus Gould is no doubt cheering for the Penrith Panthers to win the grand final because it will look good on his footy resume.

There’s no question he has played a significant role in the Panthers becoming a super club. Most importantly, he had the connections 10 years ago to get funding from tycoon James Packer when the club’s finances were in a critically bad shape. He also invested in and developed what was already the biggest and strongest junior league nursery in the country.

Now that’s the positive side of the story. Read on.

A deeper dive reveals how significantly the Panthers have kicked on, coinciding with Gould’s departure in April 2019.

For starters, he didn’t even want Ivan Cleary at the club as head coach. He was looking elsewhere for a replacement for Anthony Griffin.

The Panthers have kicked on since Phil Gould left the club in 2019. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

The board, headed by chairman Dave O’Neill, proceeded to do the Cleary deal without his knowledge. Cleary, who had been sacked by Gould three years earlier, won the Dally M coach of the year award last year.

It was then an issue of fixing Gould’s salary cap. Players the guru had signed on multimillion-dollar long-term deals – Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Waqa Blake, among others – had to be released.

The Panthers are still paying for part of their salaries at the Parramatta Eels – about $700,000 a season.

It was the only way that Cleary could pull together this current roster.

And finally, ask anyone at Penrith about the atmosphere since Gould left.

No one is walking on egg shells. The players seem a much happier bunch.

It shows everyone has a use-by date, even the great man.

Originally published as What’s the Buzz: The day Michael Maguire rejected Manly job