Maguire goes public with sad revelation as Walters tipped to join Broncos' rivals
Michael Maguire has opened up on the "empty feeling" he felt after leading NSW to State of Origin glory in 2024 that sparked his call to join the Brisbane Broncos. And former coach Kevin Walters is being tipped to land a head-coaching role with the NRL's newest team.
Walters was sacked by the Broncos last September after the team's 12th-placed finish, which came after they made the grand final in 2023. The Broncos then moved quickly to sign Maguire, which left the NSW Blues needing a new coach.
Speaking at the club's season launch on Thursday night, Maguire reflected on a moment of deep reflection he experienced last July that made him realise he wanted to be a full-time NRL coach again. He had just wrapped up a 2-1 State of Origin series win as NSW coach, but was left with mixed emotions that it was all over.
"I will never forget how I had finished the Origin (series) and had to do some media the next morning and it was a really strange feeling," Maguire said. "We'd had a great night together and I had to do some stuff on Channel Nine and the other networks.
"I went back to say goodbye to the players (at the team hotel) and literally all of them and all my staff had gone back to clubland. I stood there I had this feeling of, 'where is my team?' I can't go back and do something with this group'."
Maguire said he got back into preparing for the 2025 Origin series with a nagging feeling that he still wanted to be a club coach like he was at Souths and the Wests Tigers. "Then the Broncos job came up literally out of the blue," he said.
"It was a job I looked at and I thought of the gravitas of what the Broncos are, the history and how some of the all-time great players have come out of this club. I thought, 'I have got to go and do it'."
Walters also lifted the lid on how his sacking came about on Friday. Speaking on his new 'Inside Ball' podcast with co-host Ben Dobbin, the Broncos great said he was preparing for the 2025 season with new assistant coaches Ben Te'o and Trent Barrett, but had a feeling something wasn't right.
"I accelerated things," Walters said. "I rang my manager and said, 'I have got a bad feeling in my stomach that this isn't quite right'. He made a phone call and we went in and they made the decision to finish up with me. I was shocked because we were a long way down the track with 2025 planning."
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But Walters confessed he's certain he'll coach in the NRL again soon. And leading NRL journalist Michael Carayannnis reckons it could be with the new PNG franchise in 2028.
Former Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou is reportedly keen for the job and willing to move to PNG. Demetriou is coach of the PNG Kumuls national team, and knows the players and systems better than most.
Mal Meninga has also left the door ajar and hasn't ruled it out, but Carayannis believes Walters would be perfect. "His larrikin personality and the fact he's not as intense 24/7 like a Madge Maguire," Carayannis said about Walters on SEN radio on Friday. "Those really intense sort of coaches won't work in PNG. Kevvie does have a hard edge to him...but maybe I could see him there."
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