@avocadoontoast said in [Madge Maguire \- Mega Thread](/post/1411572) said:
‘Whispers are getting louder’: Madge given timeline to save job as dressing room turns
From Fox
Pressure is mounting on Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire amid claims members of the playing group were taken aback by his press conference comments last week.
Maguire described his team’s performance against the Rabbitohs as “garbage” after the 38-22 loss, adding that he “needs to find men who are going to be accountable”.
Those comments did not go down well with some players though.
“I think we are all starting to hear the rumblings around the Tigers and a little bit of unrest at the club in regards to the way they go forward,” the Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Chammas toldTriple M on Saturday.
“Quite a few of the players had their noses out of joint a little offended by Michael Maguire’s comments last week.”
The Tigers currently sit in 14th position with just five wins from 16 games and are yet to qualify for the finals under Maguire, who took the Rabbitohs to a premiership in 2014.
Maguire’s role in the club’s poor form has been excused at times with suggestions his hard edge is needed to address the soft underbelly at the Tigers.
But now he and the club face a stark reality.
“I’m not defending the players because I think there’s an element that the players are partly to blame,” Chammas said.
“It’s the reality of the situation that if he’s starting to lose them and comments like that, sending text messages amongst each other about ‘what’s the coach saying here about us’ and they’re taking offence to it.
“Whether they are right or wrong that is the reality of the situation Madge now finds himself in. How you overturn that, given their start to the year, given they are struggling to recruit players. I’m starting to feel he is losing a lot of support with the people that matter.”
It comes as the Daily Telegraph believes Maguire has six games to save his job and a defeat to the Broncos in their next match could prove fatal.
“They play Brisbane on the back of a bye, have lost to Melbourne and South Sydney which most people expected, but if they lose to Brisbane things could start to unravel pretty quickly,” Chammas added.
“The club is waiting for Tim Sheens to arrive, he probably won’t be out of quarantine until August but the whispers are getting louder.”
Sheens will be returning to the Tigers as head of football performance but The Australian’s Brent Read worries it may be too late to save Maguire’s job.
“The sense I get is they’ll wait until Tim gets here and gets his feet under the desk and a feel for the environment,” he said.
“I’ve been one of Madge’s biggest fans and I cop flak for it but even I acknowledge now the sense is unless things change dramatically in the next month or two, he can’t survive. They’re just making no headway, they’re actually going backwards.
“The players have to take a lot of responsibility for it but as we always see in these situations, it is easier to get rid of a coach than to clean out the dressing room. So ultimately if Tim Sheens gets there and they lose a couple more. If they lose that game [Broncos], that is another mark against him.
“If Tim gets there in August and things haven’t changed, I don’t see how Madge can be there next year.”
However, one of the other questions the club needs to ask itself is that if Maguire is not the coach to lead the Tigers forward, then who is?
Shane Flanagan, Paul Green and Paul McGregor are three high-profile former coaches looking for a full-time gig but Chammas is hearing another name.
“When I speak to people in the NRL about who the best coach the one name I keep hearing is Cameron Ciraldo,” he said.
Ciraldo was pursued by Cronulla to work as assistant coach alongside Craig Fitzgibbon but declined the offer, instead opting to stay put at Penrith.
Panthers great Mark Geyer though believes a head coaching gig would be enough to see Ciraldo leave the foot of the mountains.
“The hype is real,” he said.
“I think he’d leave for a first-grade job. I know that Fitzy wanted to headhunt him at the Sharks as an assistant but ultimately he stayed at Penrith and that got approved with a roar of cheers. The players love him.
“He’s the Fitzgibbon of Origin. Fitzy does all the talking to the players, Freddie will go on the record and say that. Freddie has that aura where he doesn’t need to say much and when he says it they jump. He’s got the whole squad juggling – one bloke who has gone to the next level juggling is Nathan Cleary – hand-eye coordination.”
When you combine Ciraldo’s open mindset with his strong communication skills, Geyer said the 36-year-old would thrive in head coaching role.
“He thinks outside the box, has a great demeanour,” he added.
“He’s a softly spoken bloke but when he talks you listen. He says it in a way that you want to run through walls for him and that’s what I’m trying to get back to.
“Respecting whose authority is above you. If you’ve got respect for them you’ll do anything, you won’t turn up to training drunk.”
Geyer is referring to reports David Nofoaluma was stood down from the Tigers leadership group after attending training hungover.
It was the morning after the wedding of chairman Lee Hagipantelis’ daughter.
He believes that incident speaks to the broader problems at not just the Tigers but other clubs struggling for form at the moment.
“Look at the Dragons with what happened to them last Saturday, the Bulldogs with what happened the week before, David Nofoaluma coming to training hungover - it doesn’t happen to Penrith, the Roosters and the Storm – the good clubs,” he said.
“It starts right at the top and filters its way down to the players. If you have respect for those who are above you, who are in command, you don’t stuff up. If you give a damn about who has the whistle in the hand you’re going to act accordingly.
“Is Madge the right man for the job? I think he is. Has he got a roster he doesn’t want at the moment? Half of it – yeah – they’re rugby league players who do this for a living.
“Some of the performances they’ve put up this year, they should be unemployed some of them, that’s just not up to first-grade standards. Something is wrong.
“Hopefully Tim Sheens who has an aura about him, if he can come straighten the Tigers out which I think he can, if you start winning it becomes infectious. That’s all the Tigers need a couple of back-to-back and they need to get one soon.”
If that does not come next week against Brisbane it will spell trouble for Maguire.
OK, thats great, Chamas has laid his agenda out for all to see.
