Brisbane Broncos hire Maguire to coach the club’s NRL team

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Michael Maguire was hired as head coach of the Brisbane Broncos on Tuesday, five days after Kevin Walters departed following the club’s National Rugby League slide from runners-up in 2023 to 12th place this season.

Maguire signed a three-year contract and will take over ahead of the 2025 season.

Maguire was head coach of South Sydney in 2014 when the Rabbitohs ended a 43-year premiership drought. But his tumultuous time in the NRL was punctuated when he was fired in 2022 by West Tigers, where he had a 29-51 win-loss record.

Since then, Maguire has won a Pacific Championships with New Zealand and guided New South Wales to a series win over Queensland in the annual State of Origin in July.

"The Broncos are one of rugby league's great clubs," Maguire said. "The Broncos organization has a high expectation on everything it does. It's built a great history and shown the strength of what a club can be and what it can mean to fans.”

Walters is a Broncos great who won NRL premierships with the powerful club and also represented Queensland and Australia but he paid the price for a form slump in 2024 following the departure of some key players.

The Broncos joined the NRL in 1988 as part of the league’s expansion and became the dominant team of the 90s and early 2000s. But the Brisbane club has been unable to add to its 6 premierships in the last 18 seasons, finishing runner-up twice in that time - in 2015 and 2023.

The Broncos started 2024 with a loss to Sydney Roosters in the NRL’s season-opening weekend in Las Vegas.