Maguire not the problem: Brooks in cross-hairs as Tigers ask ‘where to now?’
By Michael Chammas
April 12, 2021 — 6.00am
Michael Maguire has a clause in his recently-extended two-year contract that would allow the Wests Tigers to hit the eject button without much of an impact to the bottom line.
It’s the protection mechanism that the club were adamant they needed in case the rumblings around Maguire’s relationship with the players spilled over and left them with no choice but to part ways.
If Tigers powerbrokers believed sacking the coach would fix the problems that saw them humiliated in the first half of their loss to the previously hapless Cowboys, the club would not hesitate in triggering the termination and moving on.
But instead the questions aren’t being asked of the coach, with the blow torch now firmly pointed at under-siege halfback Luke Brooks as his career at the embattled club reaches a crossroad.
Sitting atop the grandstand at Leichhardt Oval, the club’s hierarchy watched on in disbelief as to how, in front of a packed home crowd in what was meant to be a tribute to Tommy Raudonikis, one of the most passionate men in rugby league history, the team put in such an uninspired performance.
At half time one of the most respected figures in rugby league walked into the corporate suite full of Tigers directors and hanger-onners to an avalanche of questions.
“What is our problem?” they asked. The conversation went on for some time, but the key point was made. “I tell you what isn’t the problem, your coach,” the person replied.
Clearly the Tigers held concerns about the coach otherwise they wouldn’t have felt the need to include the clause in the contract, however at this point in time Maguire is under no pressures to keep his job.
The same can’t be said for the halfback. The Wests Tigers have stuck by Brooks for the best part of a decade. He’s one of their own. A local junior. Brooks is a fantastic ambassador for the club and has worked tirelessly to help turn the joint venture’s fortunes around, but the reality is he has failed to deliver a single finals game in his eight seasons in the top grade.
However their faith in Brooks has all-but dwindled to the point of no return, with the club set to ponder a future without the halfback despite having two more years to run on his $900,000-a-season deal.
Is he a halfback? Can he control a football team? The questions will be rampant again this week. Ironically the man sitting in the away coach’s box on Sunday afternoon, Cowboys coach Todd Payten, could hold the solution to both the Tigers and Brooks’ woes.
Payten has a close relationship with Brooks having coached him in the club’s juniors. To think he is not speaking to the halfback about a future outside of the Wests Tigers would be naive.
Several of Brooks’ closest confidants are also encouraging the 26-year-old to consider life at another club. The Cowboys are expected to have close to an extra $1m to spend in the salary cap if Michael Morgan is granted a medical retirement after he succumbed to a shoulder injury and hung up the boots during the week.
The Cowboys are after Adam Reynolds as a halfback, but there is also an appetite to lure Brooks as a five-eighth in a combination that would take the pressure of controlling the football team away from the Tigers No.7.
A few months ago the club considered making a play for Mitchell Pearce, but their faith in Brooks prevented them from acting on it. After Sunday’s loss, in which a knock-on from Brooks in the dying seconds denied the Tigers a chance at snatching a miracle last-ditch win, the club has changed its tune.
Two weeks ago Phil Gould tweeted: “Luke Brooks is NOT the problem with Tigers. Tigers may well be the problem for Luke Brooks”.
There’s no doubt there are people trying to convince Brooks that is the case. Those trying to convince the Tigers it is the other way around might have just succeeded.
