Tough Kiwi calls show Madge will pick Blues on form
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Michael Maguire showed by blooding young Kiwi forwards Leo Thompson and Griffin Neame in the Pacific Championships that he would pick players on form and the new Blues coach has vowed to adopt a similar selection policy in Origin.
Maguire will take charge of NSW on a multi-year deal with an impressive coaching staff drawn from across the NRL, including former Blues John Cartwright, Matt King and Brett White as assistants and Melbourne’s Frank Ponissi as team performance manager.
While the 2014 premiership winning mentor insists that he could have also continued to coach New Zealand, Maguire believes the experience of guiding the Kiwis from rock bottom in 2018 to a record 30-0 defeat of Australia four weeks ago will benefit the Blues.
'I've dreamed of doing this for NSW': Michael Maguire
“Coaching week-to-week in club land to coaching at international level, or Origin, is different,” Maguire said.
“You get players of all ages in club land, and different abilities, whereas when you walk into this arena you have got the best of the best.
“The Kiwis have definitely given me a lot of learnings around working in campaigns, hence the reason why I felt I could probably do both – because they are campaigns.
“We want to win, that is why we do it, and when you have got the best players, you just want to create the environment for those men to go out and do what they are very capable of doing.”
However, Maguire won’t pick players on reputation alone, as he showed by omitting Shaun Johnson from the New Zealand squad for last year’s World Cup in England.
Every player in the Kiwis backline for the November 4 triumph against the Kangaroos was blooded by Maguire, while Neame and Thompson were handed their Test debuts during the Pacific Championships.
Griffin Neame Try
“People have got history, of course they have, but I'm a big believer about performance. The habits that you're forming and how you're playing plays a part in when you come together in a campaign,” he said.
“I learnt that through my time with the Kiwis with various players. Guys like Leo Thompson and Griffin Neame were playing really well for their club land but no-one really spoke about them.
“Then they went and played for their country and everyone could see what they were capable of, so form is big in where I want to take the team and they are two great examples.”
The Blues are in a similar position to New Zealand when Maguire took over after the 2017 World Cup, in which they lost to Tonga and were eliminated at the quarter-final stage by Fiji.
After winning the first two series' under the coaching of Brad Fittler in 2018 and 2019, NSW have lost three of the last four series', including the last two.
Maguire boasts a record of 12 wins from 18 Tests with New Zealand, including a 2-3 record against Australia, and leaves with the Kiwis in arguably their strongest position since winning the 2008 World Cup.
"The biggest thing I’ll say to all the [NSW] players is just to go out and play the best footy that you can play because that’ll play a big part in where we go as a group," Maguire said.
"I’ll have discussions to be able to find ideas around what’s going to best work for NSW and the squad, but I’m also going to say to them ‘go out and enjoy yourselves and play your best footy’, and when the time’s right, we’ll have to pick a team."
Maguire has already consulted the three previous Blues coaches before Fittler - Craig Bellamy, whom he worked under at the Storm from 2005 to 2009, Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley.
"All of those guys I was fortunate to be with at Canberra in the early 1990s and I know how passionate they are about the NSW jersey," he said.
"It's the ultimate at the end of the day and there's so much passion there."
Maguire also has a long association with King, who begun his coaching career under the former South Sydney mentor before joining the Roosters, while he coached White - now an assistant at the Titans - in Melbourne.
Cartwright also enjoyed success with NSW as a player and the Broncos assistant, who was the Titans' foundation coach in 2007, will bring experience and connection with former Blues of his era to the job.
All were former premiership winning players, Origin and Test stars, who are currently members of NRL coaching staffs.
However, the most significant member of Maguire's off-field team may be Ponissi, who many believe has been as instrumental in the success of the Storm during the past two decades as Bellamy.
"Frankie's enormous. I guess everyone's seen the journey that club's been on," Maguire said. "He just brings a wealth of knowledge but just a calmness about how he goes about what he does.
"When I asked him about the Origin arena, he said 'it's one thing I haven't done, and I'd love to'. He just jumped on it straight away."
