'He's a winner': How Madge ended 19-year Broncos drought

“You’ve been here before; your best half is about to come”.

That was the simple message from serial winner Michael Maguire to Brisbane players as they stared down a 22-12 half-time deficit in Sunday’s epic grand final against the Storm at Accor Stadium.

The Broncos had come from behind to beat the minor premiers, Canberra, and four-time back-to-back premiers Penrith in successive finals matches and they did it again to triumph 26-22 and claim the club’s first premiership in 19 years.

Maguire had been criticised for his brutal training methods after taking charge of Australia’s biggest sporting club at the end of last season but the superior fitness of the Broncos and the belief he instilled in the players delivered success. Again.

As superstar fullback Reece Walsh said: “He is a bloody winner, and I want to be a winner”.

Maguire is a proven drought breaker who boasts one of the best coaching records at any level of the game, including:

• Overseeing Wigan’s first Super League premiership in 12 years:
• Ending South Sydney’s 43-year premiership drought in 2014;
• Masterminding New Zealand’s record 30-0 defeat of Australia in the 2023 Pacific Cup final;
• Taking NSW to their first Origin series win in three years in 2024, and;
• Steering the Broncos to their first grand final win since 2006.

In doing so, he also became just the sixth coach to win premierships with two NRL clubs and just the second coach to win a premiership with the Broncos after Wayne Bennett, who was in charge of Brisbane’s first six grand final wins.

“I like taking on a challenge, definitely,” Maguire said. “I just chase moments like this.

“Winning comps is bloody special. This is really special, Souths was really special, so was (winning Origin) last year.

“They are all different and unique, I so don’t really want to judge any of them but this has been an incredible experience. They are hard to win. I have been chasing this since 2014.”

Broncos management hired Maguire to deliver a premiership after falling short in the 2023 decider and finishing 12th in 2024.

With Brisbane having won six grand finals in 15 seasons from 1992 to 2006, but not having experienced success since, there was pressure and expectation on Maguire.

Midway through the season, the Broncos were sitting in 11th place with five wins from 12 games, but Maguire never stopped believing and convinced his players to keep pushing towards an elusive premiership.

“That’s what great clubs and great people do, they demand that from each other,” he said.

“I knew that I had some pretty special individuals in the club. They were all hungry and they obviously had some hurt from a couple of years ago.

“The pre-season is about belief, we got challenged through the year, we played a couple of games throughout the year which I thought weren’t really good, but they kept turning up, they kept doing their reviews and working hard to get better.”

Walsh said that if there had been any doubts about Maguire’s methods at the start of the season, the criticism helped to galvanize the playing group behind him and they started to see the results as the Broncos climbed into the top four.

“I think a lot of people have their opinions outside of the club,” Walsh said.

"I remember Madge’s passion and him sticking up for us midway through the year when we were getting rinsed through the media about the way we go about things, but the care he has for us, no one knows outside the club.

“The way he looks after us as people, the way he looks after our partners, there is nothing more we could ask for. He demands a lot, as he should demand a lot - we have just won a comp."

However, when the Brisbane players came into the dressing shed at halftime, trailing 22-12, they looked to Maguire for guidance.

Instead of a Churchillian speech, he kept it simple and reminded them that had come from behind against the Raiders and Panthers.

"I didn't have to say too much at halftime. I just said to them, 'you're best half is about to come', because we have come from behind over the last month. I said if you go and do that, we win the game," Maguire recounted.

"That is what belief gives you. I said, 'you have been doing it for the past month, you know what you need to do'. And they did.

“I have been questioned all my life as a coach, so it doesn’t worry me. These guys bought into exactly what I have seen work at the various places I have been at. They didn’t flinch, they didn’t go away from it, they stayed the course, and they are sitting here now off the back of all the work that they have done."