Maguire bringing back South Sydney of old
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Greg Inglis in action during the NRL round 7 New Zealand Warriors v South Sydney Rabbitohs. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Wayne Drought
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South Sydney coach Michael Maguire is an expert at flying under the radar. At his previous club, Wigan, he was known as man of few words, preferring to talk mainly about his team’s performance on that day rather then the decisions of the referees or finals time.
But this season South Sydney’s performances are hard to ignore. Not just because of the individual efforts of players such as Greg Inglis, Dave Taylor and Sam Burgess, but because of the changes that are becoming more and more evident under Maguire.
Any Souths fan will recognise the fact that for the past few years, South Sydney were a play what you see sort of team without any real solid structure. While this was successful at times and exciting to watch, it left room for too many errors in defense and also left the players wondering what to do next, which usually resulted in a lapse of confidence and concentration.
While they had extremely capable captains in Roy Asotasi and Michael Crocker, it was hard for them to direct a team who were trying their heart out, just didn’t know what to do when the going got tough. Enter the world of Michael Maguire.
Maguire started his coaching career as an assistant at Melbourne under Craig Bellamy. He then went on to coach English Super League club Wigan, where he won his first ever title as a head coach.
As we all know the English Super League is a different ball game to the NRL, however it most certainly says something about the man as a coach. People who have worked with Maguire speak of him as emphasizing dedication and discpline.
If you listen to his press conferences he repeats the phrases “working hard, improving as a group, development, learning and working as a team”. From that we can see what type of person Maguire is and what his philosophies are. More importantly, we can see it on the field.
Maguire has implemented many of his ideals to the team, including hard work and discipline and is starting to make the Rabbitohs realise what it takes to win a premiership and be consistently up there with the likes of Melbourne and Brisbane.
After all, the best known and most successful coaches are renowned for it, such as Wayne Bennett, Des Hasler, Craig Bellamy and Jack Gibson. This is paying dividends on the field as we see a much more structured, confident and consistent team.
In my opinion, it’s Maguire’s attention to detail and his ability to explain things in a way that the team understands that make him a very good coach.
One of the things Bennett said is that he is struggling to make his team “buy into his ideas”. This doesn’t appear to be a problem for Souths.
Roy Asotasi has been quoted as saying the team “wants to play for their coach”; that in itself shows the leadership qualities Maguire possess and his ability to make his team believe in what they are trying to achieve and that they can do it.
For Souths fans it’s been a case of “not this year next year”, but I am certain that under Maguire, the fans will not have to use this excuse for much longer.
June 13th 2012 @ 1:26am
Johnno said | June 13th 2012 @ 1:26am | Report comment
Mick Mcguire would of loved too have had Les Davidson and the falcon Mario in his team . Mick’s type of men, just get onto action and get down to business and rip in. Keep going Mick and don’t worry about the do gooders just head down, your the type of coach the knockers usually like just hard as nails and get on with the job.
June 13th 2012 @ 3:49am
peeeko said | June 13th 2012 @ 3:49am | Report comment
pretty simple really – greg inglis playing fullback instead of rhys wessor.
June 13th 2012 @ 1:23pm
Frank The Tank said | June 13th 2012 @ 1:23pm | Report comment
And no Sandow!!!!
June 13th 2012 @ 4:15am
Soul of Sydney said | June 13th 2012 @ 4:15am | Report comment
I have to admit watching the team this year they do look like a more professional unit, playing smarter, kicking well playing a more structured game to our ability.
love to see this keep going during the back end of the year, could be deadly if everyone gets back on the field and firing come back end of the season.
In saying that still, games like this week against the eels still worry me as i seen us switch off way too many times when we had teams on the rack.. or had a game we should have won by plenty
June 13th 2012 @ 6:54am
Todd Slater said | June 13th 2012 @ 6:54am | Report comment
More steel in the cardinal & myrtle this year. For some reason it feels like either 1987 or 1989.
Johnny Lang had them playing what’s in front them.
Maguire has them playing for 80 mins.
Any proof needed see their last game against the ‘dogs.
June 13th 2012 @ 8:32am
eagleJack said | June 13th 2012 @ 8:32am | Report comment
Todd, you mean the game they lost 23-18? I agree Souths look good this year but I’m not sure a game where a team bombs a 12 point lead, fails to score in the dying moments before letting in a try to the opposition is proof they are playing for the full 80. Unless your comment was tongue in cheek
June 13th 2012 @ 1:22pm
Frank The Tank said | June 13th 2012 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
Todd are you talking about the first time we played the Dogs? But I do agree, much more steel, but the biggest difference for me is that they don’t give away the silly penalties and they complete their sets of 6. They are showing great improvement, they’ll hopefully make the 8 but I can’t see them winning it with Sutton at 6 and Farrell in the centres.
June 13th 2012 @ 12:10pm
Meesta Cool said | June 13th 2012 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
I think the title should read — “Maguire brings back the Storm of old”… Memo to Michael, there are still a few ex Storm boys hanging around non achieving clubs that you could possibly tempt back… How on earth did you miss out on Hoffman?.
Make no mistake, This guy is as good as Bellamy, he is of the same school and the same dedication, losing is not in his vocabulary, well done Michael
June 13th 2012 @ 12:50pm
James D said | June 13th 2012 @ 12:50pm | Report comment
You know what i rather souths actually have that title of storm of old because hey that means that the club is more likely to be successful and win more games then lose and therefore go along way to winning the title (fingers cross haha) but i mean if clubs are not following or trying to replicate or better the current standard i.e. storm then they will never win the title, simple as that.
June 13th 2012 @ 2:17pm
Meesta Cool said | June 13th 2012 @ 2:17pm | Report comment
James, I believe that Maguire will work wonders with Bunnies, he has a good management team behind him and full support of the players.. Unlike Steve Kearney’s role at Parra. I wish your team all the best. you have been disappointed long enough!.
June 13th 2012 @ 8:17pm
Balmainslipperyeel said | June 13th 2012 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
It is abundantly clear that Maguire is a thinker and a doer, who has implemented some solid, effective structures in a relatively short space of time. Inglis at fullback has been a revelation, but so has been Adam Reynolds, who has shown plenty of maturity and consistency at Halfback…way more than Chrissy Sandow ever did. By the way, do you guys want him back? Here’s a good deal, you guys can have Sandow and Ben Roberts in a straight swap for Reynolds, hehe.