Wests Tigers legend Benji Marshall says the only way coach Michael Maguire can assure himself job security this year is to win football games.
Maguire was almost sacked by the Concord club in September, before a bizarre change of heart from the board saved his skin and earned him a reprieve not many people saw coming. Their own chairman labelled the entire saga “a debacle and an embarrassment”.
The Tigers won eight games and finished 13th on the ladder, but were once again the laughing stock of the competition as they missed playing finals for a 10th consecutive year.
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They’ve hardly improved in three years under Maguire’s tutelage but the club hierarchy are holding out hope he can still be their saviour.
Marshall was asked by 9News if he feared for Maguire’s job this season.
“I don’t fear for it. He may feel otherwise,” Marshall said.
“The only way to solve it is to have success. If you don’t have success then coaches are going to change, as do players. We’ve seen that year in, year out.
“So he is probably feeling the heat there.”
Marshall revealed he is contemplating entering NRL coaching one day himself, but for now he’s more than happy to sit on the peripheries.
His former coach, Tim Sheens, has returned to Concord this year and has set about restoring the merger club to its former glory.
Sheens and Marshall won the 2005 NRL premiership together, and the latter believes his old mentor can sprinkle some magic dust on the Tigers again 17 years later.
“He brings a real calmness, a real calmness about him,” Marshall said of Sheens.
“Not only that, he’s brought the Tigers out of this position before. He’s had to rely on a lot of young kids, sign the right people… and ’05 turned out the way it did.
“He’s also a shoulder to lean on if Madge (Maguire) needs it or any of the players need someone else to talk to.
“He’s been there and done that.”
The Tigers kick off their NRL season against Melbourne on March 12.
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