Broncos head coach Michael Maguire hit back at suggestions that he is incapable of taking advice from his assistants as he copped an eight-minute grilling on Thursday morning in the wake of Ben Te’o’s sensational exit.
But Maguire refused to shed light on the verbal stoush he had with Te’o, who quit as assistant coach on Tuesday morning.
“I take advice from many people. I actually really enjoy taking advice from people,” Maguire told a scrum of reporters at the Broncos’ Red Hill headquarters.
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“I probably do less coaching now than I ever have, to be honest. As a young coach you’re fairly full on, and people have probably spoken about that over my journey as a coach, but … where I’m at at the moment, I enjoy bringing staff on and people on.”
Maguire faced an onslaught of questions about the breakdown in his relationship with Te’o, who was Brisbane’s defence coach and blue shirt trainer.
“I’m not gonna go into too much conversation,” Maguire said in response to the first Te’o-related question.
“Look, he submitted his resignation and we’ve taken that, and that’s all I’m going to talk about.”
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Asked how he had dealt with the eventful week, he admitted rugby league dishes up surprises.
“Things [have happened] that, I guess you, you don’t expect to happen, I guess,” Maguire said.
“You’ve gotta deal through those and you’ve gotta remember you’re dealing with people. That’s the important part here, and obviously we’ve gotta move forward because we’ve got a big game [on Friday night].”
The Broncos will take on cross-city rivals the Dolphins on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium.
So, how are the Broncos handling no longer having a defence coach?
“We’ve got processes and things in place already,” Maguire said.
“And you’ve gotta remember I’ve got a pretty smart playing group. I’ve got some experience there across the group itself.
“And you’ve gotta remember the year that we have just been through. We’re 12 months on (from Maguire taking the head coach role), so that 12 months on gives the experience of how we are as a team, and you saw that last Friday [in Melbourne against the Storm].
“We’ve got to replicate that, so being able to do that is from a lot more of the players now, so coaching in the systems that we’re in now that we’re 12 months on does become a lot easier.”
More to come.