Under-siege Brisbane coach Michael Maguire has deflected questions about whether he’s the right man to lead the club forward after the Broncos were belted 46-20 at home by the Storm.
Brisbane missed 43 tackles and made 14 errors on Thursday in the eight-tries-to-four humbling at the hands of a Melbourne side who are also out of finals contention after playing the Broncos in last year’s grand final.
For Maguire and the premiers, it was an embarrassing end to a controversial week surrounding the home farewell denied to captain Adam Reynolds, with the team playing like a side begging for the season to end.
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When asked directly by a journalist post-game if he was the right coach to turn the club’s fortunes around, Maguire chose to talk about his players rather than his own challenges.
“You ask me this every day,” Maguire said.
“I know what this group’s capable of, as we’ve shown at times throughout the year.
“We need to be smarter and better at times within games.
“We go through many a game where we just shot ourselves when we put ourselves in a position to actually go for it, and that comes with a bit of confidence and belief around what we’re doing, and we can grow that very quickly.
“This group’s shown that over its history, so we’ve got to make sure that we get this week right and applaud those players that will be playing and leaving us, but also too, moving into the future, going back to some of the things that when I first got here, they instilled inside what makes great teams because it’s inside them.”
Another journalist then put Maguire on the spot in a bid to squeeze out more detail.
“It’s great to say you know what you’ve got, every team knows what they’ve got. They’ve had seven wins for the season,” the journalist said.
But Maguire shut him down, simply saying, “We’re definitely doing that,” referring to a review of the list.
The game featured the experiment with a new rule allowing the team conceding points to choose whether to kick off or receive the ball on the subsequent restart.
Despite seven first-half tries, neither side exercised their right to receive the ball after conceding until the 50th minute when Melbourne had a go.
Both sides ended up trying their luck but the players made it clear that the rule is not popular.
Both Broncos captain Pat Carrigan and Storm skipper Harry Grant felt the game was just fine without the need to bring in rules like the new kick-off option.
“Personally, I love the game,” Grant said.
“I’ve loved the game for so many years. Since I was four years old, I’ve played it.
“I think that’s part of the fabric of the game and we don’t need to change it. We’re bringing in a rule to counteract rules we’ve brought in.
“So maybe we can have a have a deep, hard look at going back on a few rules if that’s where we sit with it.”
