Thanks Madge, but it’s time to go

Here’s a rant about why Michael Maguire shouldn’t be coach of the Wests Tigers in 2022. While Tigers fans may be hesitant to fire another coach after our history the last decade, in the case of Maguire it’s the right call.

Among the laundry list of issues, he’s been unable to figure out what his first choice side looks like, communicate with his playing group outside of a lung-busting rant, and most importantly, address the startlingly obvious defensive frailties in his team.

While a bottom 4 finish doesn’t indicate it, this team could and probably should have played finals football this year. His rev ups on Tiger Town might make fans feel warm and fuzzy, but it’s clear these fall on deaf ears amongst the playing group.

In an ideal world, the board, CEO, coach and entire football department would step aside, however a) its not reality and b) I don’t know enough about the inner workings of the club to dive deeper into those issues, so this’ll focus on Madge.

One of Maguire’s biggest problems is that he hasn’t figured out his best 17 all season, and get’s extremely hot and cold on players, resulting in a constant shuffling of the proverbial deck chairs.

Tommy Talau has played left centre, left wing and right centre, while David Nofoaluma went from right wing to left wing and back to the right. In the pack, Luke Garner and Luciano Leilua switched edges, Joe Ofahengaue played middle, edge (where to the surprise of no one, he was awful) and bench, while our best forward, Stefano Utoikamanu, was dropped for reasons that aren’t particularly clear.

Unquestionably the most egregious, however, is Adam Doueihi, our best player, spending 6 crucial weeks out of position at right centre. We lost a number of winnable games. How are players meant to develop any rhythm with their own performance, let alone chemistry with the players either side of them, when things are constantly chopping and changing?

In terms of the practical impact of not understanding his players strengths and weaknesses, Joe Ofahengaue starting on the edge may have lost us two games directly. Ofahengaue started there against the North Queensland Cowboys, who proceeded to score three tries down his flank in the first half hour. Game, set and match.

He retains his spot the following week against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and unsurprisingly, is caught too narrow opening up a gap for Souths’ first try. Shockingly, the right edge looks far less susceptible once Garner comes on and he even jags a try running a line Joe O probably couldn’t.

This isn’t a Joe Ofahengaue problem. He doesn’t have the foot speed or the lateral movement to play on the edge. This isn’t news. Maguire is solely to blame for this. These sorts of decisions have had real consequences from a W/L perspective, and in a season where 10 wins will get 8th, those fine margins make a real difference.

Wests will finish the season having conceded the second most points per game ,a whopping 714 overall, better than only the 748 leaked by North Queensland. Madge is supposedly a tough, defence-oriented coach, but over his time at the club we’ve only gotten worse defensively, to the point where until the galling defensive issues in this team are fixed, it will not be remotely competitive.

It is the most pressing issue in this team by a distance. I’m not privy to what happens in meetings and at training so a lot of this is assumptions but the coaching staff have to bare a lot of the responsibility. There’s two major issues with our defence, poor defensive decisions on the edge, and poor commitment and contact.

Goal line defence is equal parts attitude and decision making and the Tigers fall short in both areas. Teams are able to motor down field against the Tigers so easily because of the lack of line speed and first contact. As a result, the defensive deficiencies on the edge are highlighted. I’m not sure if the lack of line speed is by design, or because the players have given up on him, but both are serious indictments on his coaching.

Good teams figured out before the season started that the 6 again rule could be easily exploited by taking the piss in the play the ball to allow your line to set, and then flying off the line to pin the opposition deep in their end and potentially force an error or dropout.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out and it shouldn’t have taken one to implement, but the Tigers haven’t been able to mount pressure through their defence all season. As a result of the lack of line speed and contact, the team invariably spends more time defending the goal line than it should, where more defensive issues are exposed.

Fans love to blame David Nofoaluma for flying out of the line and coming up with air, and some of it is justified, but the root of the problem is an inability to match numbers, forcing the outside men to jam in. Too often the attacking team has a man advantage on the edge, and, inexplicably, in many of these instances it’s on the back of a neutral or slow play the ball where the line has had time to organise and reset.

Furthermore, our edge defenders (especially Luciano and Doueihi) have a tendency to turn their shoulder in, preventing them from sliding out. These are issues that have existed for a while, and well run clubs like the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters would spend the necessary time coaching their players individually to improve in these areas.

I really struggle to understand how a professional team can be so bad at numbering up, but since its something that is so clearly an issue, it should have been a priority for the coaching staff. I don’t know what happens at training/in video but judging from the product we see each weekend this isn’t happening to the same degree at the Tigers.

The final round performance, a 38-0 pantsing at the hands of the eventual wooden spooners, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, put the final nail in Maguire’s coffin and prompted a pretty severe meltdown from the Tigers faithful, but there’s a lot to be optimistic about in the near future. A really talented young core alongside the opening of a new Centre of Excellence at Concord, plus significant cap space could provide a massive boost for the club over the next 12 months.

It’s a shame things haven’t panned out with Madge but the club has to cut its losses and move forward.

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Thanks to Simon, follow him on Twitter @simon_il97