Michael Maguire is rightly rugby league’s man of the moment after becoming just the third NSW coach in Origin history to win a decider in Brisbane.
And it’s all on the back of him making some extremely tough calls in the selection room as he pieced together a side that will go down in Origin folklore.
The Blues were staring down the barrel of a third successive series defeat which had Maguire under a mountain of pressure heading into 2024, but the rookie Origin coach never flinched and it paid off big time as NSW downed Queensland 14-4 in one of the epic deciders.
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Some questioned his choices, no more so than his decision to drop incumbent captain James Tedesco in favour of Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards whose man of the match performance in the Decider is in itself validation of Maguire’s supreme circumspection.
He also left out Apisai Koroisau altogether, dropped Nicho Hynes after a game and then changed a winning side by moving Haumole Olakau’atu to the extended squad in place of Mitch Barnett for Game Three.
“I watch a lot of footy a lot of the time. The hours I suppose you do as a coach in the background it came out I guess with making the right decisions,” Maguire told reporters on Wednesday morning.
“I made them for the right reasons and obviously got to know a lot of the players through one-on-ones or whether or not we got together and talked footy.
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“Obviously I had to make some big decisions around certain players who were champions and always will be but I just thought the players that I picked were the right ones and I felt they were going to get the job done which was really nice to see last night (Wednesday).”
Maguire said his decision to select Barnett, who had a big impact on the Blues’ win, was an easy call to make.
“I just felt in Mitch Barnett’s case he’s been playing some great footy and his commitment to what he’s been doing has been great,” Maguire said on Fox Sports’ NRL360.
“Then you look at the other players you have and you’ve got to make the calls and that’s my job.”
One such major decision was installing all-round good guy Jake Trbojevic as captain, a bloke so loveable even Queenslanders can’t help but like him.
“From day one when I sort of mentioned he was going to be captain the look on his face I still remember he sort of looked at me and I’m not quite sure he realised what I’d just said when I first said it,” Maguire said.
“I guess he took a bit of time to warm to it but to see him have the players just around him and love him that much I was really glad we went that path.
“I guess I felt that Jake was the person that was the fair bit if the glue that I’ve seen over years in the Origin team and he showed that by the passion and the players showed him last night.
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“They all take the mickey, they all love him and they all get around him. He’s a special man.”
Maguire faced another selection headache following the Blues’ 38-10 Game One loss.
Hynes didn’t shoot the lights out in Game One, which is understandable considering NSW played with 12 men for 72 minutes after Joseph Suaalii’s send-off following his infamous high shot on Queensland fullback Reece Walsh.
Even so, Hynes failed to shine prompting Maguire to call in Parramatta No. 7 Mitchell Moses who was unavailable for Game One through injury.
It proved a masterstroke as the Blues annihilated the Maroons 38-18 after taking an Origin record 34-0 lead into the break on the back of a Moses masterclass that earned him Game Two man of the match honours.
And after helping NSW to Wednesday night’s win, Moses becomes just the third halfback in Origin history to win a decider at Suncorp.
“I think Ricky Stuart, Joey (Andrew Johns) and now Mitchell (Moses). They’re three players that have broke what everyone told me was the unbreakable,” Maguire said.
Blues backrower Angus Crichton and Maguire go way back after the Blues mentor brought him to the Rabbitohs as a teenager.
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They’re a tight outfit and Maguire has witnessed Crichton’s struggles away from the field with the backrower taking time away from the game last year for mental health reasons for which the 28-year-old received professional treatment.
But the pair’s bond could not be stronger with Crichton winning the Wally Lewis Medal as player of the series in one of the great comebacks in modern rugby league.
“I met Angus as an 18-year-old and I guess I’ve seen the journey. His mum and dad, we had a nice moment there last night (Wednesday) when we just shared the stories of what he’s been through and he’s getting better and better now,” Maguire said.
“It’s nice to see. He faced a bit of a tough time and what you may go through and he came out the other side and now he’s doing some great things.”
Maguire is now up there with the code’s best coaches having led South Sydney to the 2014 premiership, New Zealand to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup and now the Blues to a drought breaking decider triumph in Brisbane.
“It’s really good. You dream about being around the Origin arena as a kid and I am fortunate enough now to be a part of it as a coach,” Maguire said.
“We’ve always from day one wanted to build something that was there around family and I guess the brotherhood they talk about and they were all there (on Wednesday night).
“Parents, mates, it was pretty special.”
Queensland could have a problem on their hands.
