{"id":776034,"date":"2026-07-03T07:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/776034\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:54:18","slug":"nrl-news-2026-brisbane-broncos-coach-michael-maguire-responds-to-critics-ahead-of-cronulla-sharks-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/776034\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Brisbane Broncos coach Michael Maguire responds to critics ahead of Cronulla Sharks clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broncos<\/a> coach Michael Maguire<\/a> was tight-lipped on Friday when asked about the latest torrent of criticism directed his way.<\/p>\n

But Broncos great Darius Boyd<\/a> has gone in to bat for the 52-year-old coach, arguing taking Brisbane to the promised land last season should see him through to 2027 despite the disastrous title defence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Broncos coach Michael Maguire addressing media on Friday.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The Broncos are desperate to snap a seven-game losing streak against the Sharks at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Languishing in 13th on the ladder on 14 points, they must win eight of their last nine games to have any chance of qualifying for finals football.<\/p>\n

Speculation around Maguire\u2019s future as Broncos coach has gone into overdrive in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Respected News Corp journalist Brent Read claimed this week that if Maguire was re-signed beyond his current deal, which expires at the end of 2027, it would cause a \u201cmass exodus\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read also said unrest among the playing group was more serious than reports suggested.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former Broncos captain Gorden Tallis<\/a> reignited his feud with Maguire on Fox League\u2019s NRL 360 this week, remarking that if the Dragons signed him \u2013 it\u2019s been suggested they should give him a call \u2013 they would end up \u201cin the second division\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Maguire was asked about the criticism during his captain\u2019s run press conference on Friday, a grin appeared on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t pay attention to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of the journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019ve got to turn up tomorrow and play the best we can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought last week we actually played a really good game against a quality team [in the loss to the Roosters<\/a>].<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam Reynolds and Michael Maguire.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

\u201c… This group just has to stay focused on what we\u2019re chasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brisbane\u2019s seven-game losing run is the longest losing streak of a reigning premier since Western Suburbs Magpies in 1953.<\/p>\n

But Maguire isn\u2019t bucking in his approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s called experience over a long period of time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve probably seen most things in the game here, and what I see is a playing group that\u2019s focused around what we all talk about. I won\u2019t share those things that we talk about, but the group knows what we\u2019re chasing and how we want to go about things.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying the Broncos have faced a massive injury toll this season.<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh<\/a>, Adam Reynolds<\/a>, Ezra Mam<\/a>, Ben Hunt<\/a>, Patrick Carrigan<\/a>, Payne Haas<\/a>, Brendan Piakura and Corey Jensen have all missed multiple games in 2026, and Billy Walters is yet to run out in first grade this season as he recuperates from an ACL rupture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s a great test for a group of men when you\u2019re going through this [rough patch],\u201d Maguire added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been through it before myself with things that I\u2019ve done with coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd, who played 206 NRL<\/a> games with Brisbane across two stints and won a premiership with them in 2006, defended Maguire on Wide World of Sports\u2019 QLDER<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, Madge is definitely safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s earned that respect from winning the competition [in 2025].<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, this year hasn\u2019t gone the way they would have liked. Injuries are a big part of that as well. At the end of the day, it\u2019s a tough job, it\u2019s a tough business.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think he\u2019s earned that right and respect, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Walters<\/a> took Brisbane to within a bronco\u2019s nose hair of grand final glory in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Broncos then finished 12th in 2024 \u2013 and Walters, a club legend, was punted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dave Donaghy and Karl Morris were Brisbane\u2019s chief executive and chairman when Walters was sacked \u2013 and are still at the helm at Red Hill.<\/p>\n

Many are saying that in light of that, Maguire can\u2019t be safe in his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all well and good to say these things, but who do you replace him with?\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if there\u2019s a better candidate out there, show me one. It\u2019s all smoke and mirrors. Everyone loves to talk. The Broncos are a powerful club with a rich history, so if you don\u2019t get the results, there\u2019s people that are gonna have their opinions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think internally they wouldn\u2019t be [at] panic stations yet, and just worrying about getting through these next couple of games to make sure they\u2019re back on the track and hopefully challenging for finals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broncos coach Michael Maguire was tight-lipped on Friday when asked about the latest torrent of criticism directed his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-776034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}