2 days ago
5
“He’s always been a really hard worker and understands that if you want something in life, you’ve got to work hard for it,” Bellamy says. “You don’t get it dished up on a plate.
“I knew he was that by the way he played, and I knew him as a bloke. Dare I say it, I knew he would put the work in when he was a coach down in Melbourne.”
Which is why, when Bellamy was called away for Origin duty midway through the 2008 season, and despite having another capable assistant in Stephen Kearney, he handed the clipboard to Maguire.
On a slippery Olympic Stadium surface in mid-May, in front of 6881 fans, Maguire was given the reins against a Nathan Brown-coached Dragons side.
“That was the first time I was able to take control when Craig was away with the team with Origin at the time,” Maguire recalls. “Those experiences were good early in my coaching career.”
These were the first baby steps for Maguire in what has become an incredible head coaching career. If it held any significance to the man himself at the time, it was quickly lost. Asked if he won on debut, the Broncos mentor shrugs.
“I can’t remember. That’s a good question,” he says. “That’s a long time ago now. There weren’t too many people at the game, I do remember that.
“I can’t remember the result, that’s how long ago it was. I’ll say yes.”
Incorrect. It was an inauspicious start, the fill-in presiding over a 36-12 loss. But word soon spread across the league about Bellamy’s protege, to the point there were reports he could be in line for the Brisbane job at the end of that year.
“There were a lot of different things I was linked to at that period,” Maguire says. “They sent me over to Wigan.”
It was there that Maguire began building an enviable body of work: success came at Wigan, South Sydney, eluded him – like it has just about all others – at Wests Tigers, before his stocks soared again after he brought glory to the Kiwis and Blues.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy sees a bit of himself in Michael Maguire.Credit: Getty Images
Eventually, he earned the gig that he has long coveted, at the Brisbane Broncos, but only after the powerhouse club launched a series of unsuccessful bids for Bellamy. The latter, meanwhile, has turned a league outpost into a powerhouse; this is Melbourne’s 11th grand final during his 23 years at the helm.
Bellamy’s boys meet a Broncos side that has been Maguire-ed. Arriving at Red Hill with his infamous baseball bat, he has figuratively bashed a talented but flighty playing squad into shape.
He has done it in his own inimitable style, but the basic tenets are those he witnessed in Victoria: details matter, and you must never be outworked.
Colleague Malcolm Knox, who literally wrote the book on Maguire after his breakthrough 2014 premiership with South Sydney, mused “the pair are too competitive to be close”.
“We’re the same in that we can be fairly competitive and can be a bit cranky at times,” Bellamy says.
“The other thing is we realise that if you want something, you’ve got to work hard for it. He would see things a bit differently off the field to me, I’d imagine.
“I always thought he would be [a head coach]. For me, the main thing is that work ethic. He always had that.”
Mutual respect has always been there, but rugby league has a way of testing friendships. Late in the 2013 season, words were exchanged after a club clash, followed by reports that Maguire had accused the Storm of leaking a story about Souths engaging a Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert.
“We had a bit of an issue there, we had a discussion, we sorted it out, shook hands,” Bellamy said at the time.
“It wasn’t a big issue, but it was something that probably had to be mentioned. It was between ourselves so it’s business as usual.”
Brisbane Broncos coach Michael Maguire.Credit: Zak Simmonds
When we corner the coaches between a multitude of grand final week commitments, Bellamy is happy to speak about his relationship with Maguire. As for Maguire on Bellamy, not so much. Perhaps it’s because those formative Storm years were just a fraction of what he has experienced during his life in league, or because he doesn’t want the opposition coach to be the focus of his own remarkable tale during grand final week.
Regardless, he plays a straight bat rather than the baseball variety when it comes to his Storm years.
“I was fortunate enough to be there in Melbourne during a good time when they had success, which obviously means you take those things into your coaching career,” Maguire says.
“It’s been great for me.”
Pressed further on Bellamy’s teachings, he simply offers: “It’s such a long time ago.
“I’ve had such a journey and education since. That’s part of what’s helped me to get to where I am now and that’s been a part of moulding the many lessons I’ve learnt over time.”
Perhaps the biggest lessons have been learnt after Maguire and Bellamy parted company. In head-to-head clashes, Bellamy has a 14-2 advantage, although Maguire’s Broncos won the last clash just over a month ago.
Loading
“As an organisation, they’ve had the wood on everyone,” Maguire says.
“But we’re working and that’s why I love doing what I’m doing now with the team; we’re just really focusing on what we want to become.
“We’ve got another opportunity now and it’s at a big stage for where the team’s trying to work towards.”
Everything that has happened in the past will count for naught on Sunday. Two of the best coaches in the game will try to impose their wills on proceedings from the grandstands, one hard head against another. Two men cut from the same cloth.
“The biggest difference is he’s a hell of a lot younger than me,” Bellamy grins.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
