Michael Maguire always knew he was going to be in for a rough ride at Red Hill but the walls are already closing in just three months into his maiden campaign with Brisbane.
For years, the premiership-winning coach had toiled away in an attempt to get back to what he saw as the big-time, the NRL.
Following his exit from the Wests Tigers after a disastrous spell in charge of the floundering club, Maguire rebuilt his reputation piece by piece.
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He excelled in the international arena with the New Zealand Kiwis, with the highlight of his reign arriving with their demolition of Australia in the 2024 Pacific Championships final.
Not long afterwards though, he was gone. The coach jumping at the chance to coach New South Wales.
During a stellar 2024 series, the Blues fought back from their opening loss in Sydney to complete the comeback with a rare victory in Queensland’s backyard.
No sooner had the confetti settled on the Suncorp turf, Maguire was off again.
Michael Maguire warned about messy Broncos situation
This time, Maguire punched his ticket back into the NRL with the mentor seen as the ideal remedy to Brisbane’s woes under Kevin Walters.
Yet away from the confines of the occasional coaching boxes with the Kiwis and Blues and out of the shadows as an assistant coach in Canberra, Maguire has reconvened with a particular blowtorch.
The one that says his notorious, hard-nosed methods are out of touch with the modern player and game.
"They look like a group that’s not all on the same page at the moment," QRL CEO Ben Ikin told SEN as the Broncos’ season has suddenly started to spiral out of control.
"I think most people could probably tell you that Madge’s style is a lot different from Kevvie’s. That roster and footy program was built in Kevvie’s image.
"And so, when you bring in someone who is a polar opposite, it’s going to take time to adapt.
"There are going to be players on that list who aren’t Madge’s style of player," Ikin stressed.
"There are going to be some stars who don’t align to Madge’s style either. It wasn’t going to work straight away - that would have been a fluke."
Maguire’s fingerprints were all over the club during his maiden pre-season in Brisbane.
The training tops were swiftly slipped back onto bodies and the high fashion accessories were traded in for sick buckets under the sweltering summer sun.
The proposed 'rock star' stylings of some were thought to be busy being buried under an avalanche of lung-bursting endurance sessions.
"You have to start to build the club in Madge’s image," Ikin reasoned.
"When you get a critical mass of individual staff and players, who are all going after the same thing in the same way, that’s where premierships are born.
"At the moment, it just looks like an organisation that isn’t aligned."
And the former Broncos star cautioned that the noise of discontent outside the four walls was starting to grow.
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After emphatically opening their campaign with a 50-14 thumping of the Sydney Roosters, hopes were raised of a return to being premiership contenders.
They won four of their opening five matches, knocking off neighbours North Queensland and the Dolphins, while also handing out a hiding to the Wests Tigers.
Yet their bubble burst in Round 6 when the Roosters gained an almost immediate dose of revenge.
Since that shock loss at home, the Broncos have won just one of their next six games. They are currently riding a four-game losing streak.
"Madge is going to have to sit down with his senior staff and players and start asking who is on board with it all," Ikin said.
"You can recruit some roster for some mythical coach who can coach all players, in all conditions all of the time, but that doesn’t exist.
"It’s all about alignment and getting people on the same page.
"Here’s the issue," Ikin added.
"If Madge can’t find people that line up with him, then the problem isn’t the people. The problem is Madge.
"Then he will have to think about how he adapts, otherwise he’ll be the one they push out the door."