Michael Maguire has been announced as the new New South Wales Blues head coach after the departure of Brad Fittler in September.
After more than a month of speculation, the NSWRL confirmed Maguire’s position on Thursday.
He was head coach of the New Zealand Kiwis, but Maguire quit the role last week which cleared his path to the NSW job.
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Maguire will be joined by John Cartwright, Matt King and Brett White as assistant coaches.
Highly respected Melbourne Storm football manager Frank Ponissi will be the Blues team performance manager while Andrew Gray (physical performance manager) and Sean Edwards (strength and conditioning) are also on the team.
“Michael is a multiple premiership-winning coach in two hemispheres and has been successful in the international arena as head coach of the New Zealand team,” NSWRL chief executive officer David Trodden said.
“Together with Michael’s recent experience at the Raiders, they all bring strong current NRL experience to the Blues as assistant coaches – with John working alongside Kevin Walters at the Broncos, Matt with Trent Robinson at the Roosters, and Brett with Des Hasler at the Titans.
“Along with Frank Ponissi’s involvement with the Storm, we now have a high performance team that is not only impeccably credentialled but also has the breadth and depth of current experience across four NRL clubs.”
Speaking at the announcement, Maguire confirmed his assistant coaching position at the Raiders will now be a “reduced role”.
”My main focus will be at the Blues now,” he said.
Maguire also confirmed he had a desire to continue on in the Kiwis role but didn’t feel the members of the New Zealand Rugby League were aligned with his position.
“Unfortunately things don’t work out the way you’d like, I still feel I could’ve juggled that,” he said.
“I respect people’s thoughts and one thing I do know is when you’re working in a campaign, everyone’s got to be aligned and their thoughts are in different directions and I respected that and I’m very fortunate now I can go forward with the Blues.”
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Having previously coached South Sydney Rabbitohs and Wests Tigers, Maguire has a reputation as an intense taskmaster.
However, the new Blues coach explained his experience at an international level has encouraged him to take on a different approach with Origin.
“I’m probably a bit more relaxed in this space because you’re trying to get players of all ages and different abilities when you’re in club land. Whereas when you walk into this arena you’ve got the best of the best and getting those players to express themselves is the key,” he said.