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Michael Maguire's no bunny

Roar Guru
21st January, 2012
8

Last year Stephen Kearney came up against his former mentor Craig Bellamy for the first time, and was annihilated. Without shame he admitted he had been “taught a good lesson by the master”.

Now it’s the Rabbitohs new coach and former Storm assistant Michael Maguire’s turn to face his master.

Watching the 2009 Grand Final, if you didn’t know better, you would have thought Maguire was Craig Bellamy’s waterboy. He can be seen five minutes into the game handing a bottle to try scorer Ryan Hoffman.

Following Adam Blair’s try in the 24th minute, however, he has the players in a circle, he’s intense, he’s making a point loudly, driving it home with thrusts of the finger. It is now apparent he’s no drinks waiter – he’s Bellamy’s protegé, an imposing enough title, but also a man with some ideas of his own.

Three days later he was coach of Wigan, the former English powerhouse looking for a return to the glory days. They had seen enough of this ‘assistant’ to know he could deliver something special.

He was there almost from the beginning when Bellamy was working on his recipe for a dynasty. He had coached the Storm to impressive wins when Bellamy and most of its stars were away on Origin duty; and the Broncos had wanted him after losing the greatest coach of modern times so what better recommendation was there?

Unsurprisingly he delivered immediately, with the club winning the Super League title in his first year. In his second he claimed the Challenge Cup.

It could have been suggested that his success was purely a result of replicating the techniques – ones guaranteed to bring instant results in the lesser English competition – of  Bellamy.

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But that would be underestimating Maguire’s achievements. Taking over from the esteemed premiership and former Great Britain coach Brian Noble he guided a virtually unchanged squad that had finished sixth the previous year to the minor premiership.

Yes, Noble had managed to get the team to three consecutive preliminary finals but team management had realised a special presence was needed  to take the huge next step.

It’s no secret that the first requirement for success is hard work. Matty Johns, noting that Bellamy, Bennett and Hasler trained their teams the hardest concluded: “Now if you look at the results of those blokes over the last five years, why the hell has anyone tried to do anthing differently?”

Bennett commenting last year on Bellamy’s resurrection of the Storm admitted his former assistant put him in the shade when it came to sheer workload.

Like Walter White from Breaking Bad in his crystal meth lab, Bellamy oversees absolutely every facet from match strategy and player development, to sports science. 

In that regard Maguire is no different. He works his charges literally into the ground – there was a newspaper photo of giant prop Sam Burgess struggling to leapfrog his even bigger teammate, a prostrate Dave Taylor.

The sound of the coach screaming “I can’t teach you talent but I will teach you toughness!” will be drowning out the late arrival announcements at Redfern station.

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But there may be something different about Maguire, this Bellamy MkIII.  At Wigan he showed a propensity for experimentation, notably the switching of champion five eighth Sam Tomkins to fullback.

He also often showed a preference for youth over experience in big matches: a risky venture but when it works it can give players the self confidence to become superstars.

Maguire doesn’t appear too worried by gun halfback Chris Sandow’s departure but then again he’s had that happen to him before when Matt Orford belatedly skipped Melbourne town. Orford’s no-option replacement, a young and unheralded chap called Cooper Cronk, has done all right so why can’t Adam Reynolds do something similar?

To make things a lot easier Maguire inherits a forward pack to kill for and has benefitted from Russell Crowe’s other attempts to purchase some of Storm’s winning culture ie the presence of Michael Crocker, Greg Inglis and Matt King.

As a Storm assistant Maguire would have been well aware of the tendency of South Sydney to get ahead of themselves. So just in case the players have any energy left to do so, a ban has been placed on all talk of finals. Wanting to use the club’s proud history as a positive force he will seek out self exiled legend George Piggins.

Inglis, on hearing of Maguire’s signing, advised his teammates to get ready for the toughest pre-season of their lives. He also inadvertently attested to the greatness of Bellamy: “If you put him (Maguire) and Steve Kearney together, you get ‘Bellyache'”.

If Maguire is only half as good as his ex boss he’ll still be a very good coach. But he’ll bring something else to the table I’m sure.

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In Round 2 he gets his chance to serve it up.

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