Former NRL player Martin Taupau has claimed he ‘nearly drowned’ during a brutal training session at the Brisbane Broncos and wasn’t allowed to address his teammates after being sacked by the club. The forward played 256 NRL games across a 16-year career with the Bulldogs, Tigers, Sea Eagles and Broncos.
He finished his career with 34 games for the Broncos from 2023 to 2025, but was sacked by the club in the middle of last season. He later retired from the NRL and was farewelled on grand final day.
Taupau was sacked by Brisbane for ‘liking’ a social media post from former Tigers player Elijah Taylor about coach Michael Maguire’s brutal training standards. Taupau has admitted he didn’t actually watch the video – which the Broncos thought was disparaging of Maguire – until later.
Marty Taupau (second from left at bottom) was ultimately sacked by Michael Maguire (L) and the Broncos. Image: Getty/Marty Taupau
Speaking to The Courier Mail, the Kiwi international has now made some starting new claims about the situation. Taupau said he apologised to Maguire, as well as CEO Dave Donaghy and general manager of football Troy Thomson, and assured them he didn’t intentionally like the post.
Ultimately the decision was made to let Taupau go, as the club wasn’t likely to offer him a new contract anyway. Taupau said he asked a ‘Broncos powerbroker’ if he could address his teammates before leaving, but the request was declined.
“All I asked was ‘is it okay if I come in and see the boys?'” he recalled. “I don’t want anyone in there. I just asked if I could just speak to the players, and it never happened. The hardest thing is that there was no conversation had when all this happened. It was just radio silence.”
Marty Taupau opens up on brutal training session
Taupau said he only watched Taylor’s video for the first time during a meeting with Donaghy and Thompson. He revealed that Taylor’s comments resonated with him because he’d experienced a brutal pre-season under Maguire first-hand.
The forward said he passed out during a training session in early 2025 and fell face-first into an ice bath. “On day one of my pre-season, I blacked out,” he said. “It was 38 degrees. The training was scheduled at one o’clock that afternoon, and I didn’t finish a full training session because I blacked out.
“There was an ice bath there, and it was scary. I could have drowned, but a physio was there. He said it was the scariest thing that he’s ever experienced because he was holding me by the collar.”
Martin Taupau looks on before a Broncos game in 2025. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Taupau’s sacking meant he missed out on being part of the Broncos’ run to the NRL premiership. He was at Accor Stadium for the grand final and took part in the retiring players’ parade – which was the first time he announced publicly that he had called an end to his career.
Taupau and wife Michelle now run two businesses and he’s become a public speaker. He admitted he doesn’t miss playing and is happy and content with where life has taken him.
