THE BOSS Maguire Stomped The Naysayers! But...8 Months Later, Here We Are.

The newest James Graham and Cheese podcast is a great listen for a lot of insight from Cheese on playing under Madge.

I recommend everyone listen to it.

He basically says a big portion of the Kiwi squad had issues with Madge - his intensity, his personality. Eventually they decided that they’re on good money and that Madge’s goal is the same goal they have. Once they all accepted it and bought in they started getting success.

He basically says that Madge’s way is the hard way, the training is full on. Says it’s complicated but he’s putting the current situation on the players.
Seems to be a theme.
 
I have one little spec of glimmering hope. It is true, the boys are getting flogged. Pre-season levels of flogged still, which is unheard of this far in to a season. But it's been told to me by multiple people, including face-to-face by one of their strength and conditioning coaches, that their conditioning has been awful.

The glimmer of hope is that our results have been due to the heavy legs - we were competitive at the start of the season but tapered off when other teams backed off the intensity at training and had more in their legs on game day. What we are seeing now is like the Bennett post-Origin slump when he would work them over to prime them for the home run. Except in Madge's case, he's seen how far behind we are and has had to flog them this long to get them up to the level they need to be.

So the hope is that, at some point in the next month, the intensity starts to taper off and the increased fitness of the team comes to the fore. We've been competitive, frustratingly so, while being fatigued even before the ball has been kicked. Think of how good we can be with superior fitness to other teams.
 
I have one little spec of glimmering hope. It is true, the boys are getting flogged. Pre-season levels of flogged still, which is unheard of this far in to a season. But it's been told to me by multiple people, including face-to-face by one of their strength and conditioning coaches, that their conditioning has been awful.

The glimmer of hope is that our results have been due to the heavy legs - we were competitive at the start of the season but tapered off when other teams backed off the intensity at training and had more in their legs on game day. What we are seeing now is like the Bennett post-Origin slump when he would work them over to prime them for the home run. Except in Madge's case, he's seen how far behind we are and has had to flog them this long to get them up to the level they need to be.

So the hope is that, at some point in the next month, the intensity starts to taper off and the increased fitness of the team comes to the fore. We've been competitive, frustratingly so, while being fatigued even before the ball has been kicked. Think of how good we can be with superior fitness to other teams.

Then to expand on this further, were probably more likely to see the benefits of this approach in future seasons, when they're not starting so far back that Madge can taper off with everyone else
 
I have one little spec of glimmering hope. It is true, the boys are getting flogged. Pre-season levels of flogged still, which is unheard of this far in to a season. But it's been told to me by multiple people, including face-to-face by one of their strength and conditioning coaches, that their conditioning has been awful.

That part is interesting, did we lose a strength and conditioning coach at the end of '23? I seem to remember that being one of our strengths, at about the 60th minute most teams just couldn't keep up with us.
 
That part is interesting, did we lose a strength and conditioning coach at the end of '23? I seem to remember that being one of our strengths, at about the 60th minute most teams just couldn't keep up with us.

I have no idea how much input the guy had (that I spoke to), he wasn't one of the primary trainers but he worked closely with Ballin. He was the one that discovered the correlation between testosterone levels a certain day prior to the game and their likelihood of winning on game day. But his #1 priority was training a couple of Olympians, so when the Broncos asked him to go exclusive he couldn't (but left on good terms as the Broncos knew his priorities upfront).

The telling comment (besides mentioning Pretty Riki and saying he needs to work on more than just his upper body) was that he said he had casual clients who had better conditioning than some of the Broncos at the time.
 
Then to expand on this further, were probably more likely to see the benefits of this approach in future seasons, when they're not starting so far back that Madge can taper off with everyone else

Potentially, but I am hopeful that it was just a compromise where the first half of the season was somewhat sacrificed for a stronger end of season. All things considered, including how shit we have played the last month, we are in 9th with a positive +/- and the bye coming up, with 60% of the season still to go. Top 8 is a walk if we step up, top 4 still achievable. It just depends at what point (if my theory is correct) he thinks the team are conditioned enough and can taper off and let them rip.
 
I have one little spec of glimmering hope. It is true, the boys are getting flogged. Pre-season levels of flogged still, which is unheard of this far in to a season. But it's been told to me by multiple people, including face-to-face by one of their strength and conditioning coaches, that their conditioning has been awful.

The glimmer of hope is that our results have been due to the heavy legs - we were competitive at the start of the season but tapered off when other teams backed off the intensity at training and had more in their legs on game day. What we are seeing now is like the Bennett post-Origin slump when he would work them over to prime them for the home run. Except in Madge's case, he's seen how far behind we are and has had to flog them this long to get them up to the level they need to be.

So the hope is that, at some point in the next month, the intensity starts to taper off and the increased fitness of the team comes to the fore. We've been competitive, frustratingly so, while being fatigued even before the ball has been kicked. Think of how good we can be with superior fitness to other teams.

Opposition scoring before half time is a bad sign .
Then lose the 2nd half .
 
I have no idea how much input the guy had (that I spoke to), he wasn't one of the primary trainers but he worked closely with Ballin. He was the one that discovered the correlation between testosterone levels a certain day prior to the game and their likelihood of winning on game day. But his #1 priority was training a couple of Olympians, so when the Broncos asked him to go exclusive he couldn't (but left on good terms as the Broncos knew his priorities upfront).

The telling comment (besides mentioning Pretty Riki and saying he needs to work on more than just his upper body) was that he said he had casual clients who had better conditioning than some of the Broncos at the time.
Nathan Kiely was part of the strength and conditioning team who left, not sure what capacity he was in.
@1910 might be able shed some light on this?
 
The team looked incredibly fit in 2023 and then got better as the season went along. Something changed in 2024 but that was likely the short preseason plus Vegas heading in and then injury after injury.

I don't believe this side was coming from further back than other sides, this just sounds like someone trying to deflect blame away from Maguire. I mean let's look at the three possible outcomes of this idea:
1. This is true and the players are stuffed to get them in to shape. The fact they are competing up to end despite being flogged implies that they weren't that far behind to begin with
2. Maguire is deliberately throwing games because he wants to break them for some reason
3. He is whipping them to taper off after origin when they won't just be stuffed, they will be broken

Just sounds ridiculous to handicap yourself. Fitness does not appear to be this side's problem and in fact by all reports, they love themselves and so don't mind keeping fit. Their issues are their errors and inability to fight for each other. A focus on whipping them to they break is looking in the wrong direction.
 
Madge was there for four seasons and their results got worse every year


Kevvie got a spoon team and took us to a grand final

If Seibold had the same record as Kevvie (i.e. only making the finals once in four seasons) you would have been screaming at the top of your lungs for him to be sacked ....
 
If Seibold had the same record as Kevvie (i.e. only making the finals once in four seasons) you would have been screaming at the top of your lungs for him to be sacked ....
Seibold took over a 15/9 team and turned them into spooners in two seasons.
 
We allowed ourselves to live in fantasy land where a premiership was a realistic prospect this season. It wasn't. This season is all about changing the mentality of the playing group where they don't want to do the hard work and whipping them into shape where they can be a side that can challenge for a premiership.

These players are at a crossroad. They need to be honest with themselves and ask themselves if they have what it takes. Do they continue with the way they are going and being happy to just earn a pay cheque or do they buy in and do whatever it takes to bring success to the club? If they buy in, they will be premiership contenders.

These players got a huge shock this year, they weren't prepared for it. This is all on them. They are the ones that need to change their mentality.
 
Nathan Kiely was part of the strength and conditioning team who left, not sure what capacity he was in.
@1910 might be able shed some light on this?

The one I am referring to is Chris G. The Olympics are done for now, they could do worse.

The team looked incredibly fit in 2023 and then got better as the season went along. Something changed in 2024 but that was likely the short preseason plus Vegas heading in and then injury after injury.

I don't believe this side was coming from further back than other sides, this just sounds like someone trying to deflect blame away from Maguire. I mean let's look at the three possible outcomes of this idea:
1. This is true and the players are stuffed to get them in to shape. The fact they are competing up to end despite being flogged implies that they weren't that far behind to begin with
2. Maguire is deliberately throwing games because he wants to break them for some reason
3. He is whipping them to taper off after origin when they won't just be stuffed, they will be broken

Just sounds ridiculous to handicap yourself. Fitness does not appear to be this side's problem and in fact by all reports, they love themselves and so don't mind keeping fit. Their issues are their errors and inability to fight for each other. A focus on whipping them to they break is looking in the wrong direction.

This is me trying to deflect blame away from Maguire, out of pure hope. No one has told me that this is why they are being flogged or that this is even the plan, I have just joined the dots in a best-case scenario, as otherwise it does indeed seem like a failure of a season so far.

And there is a difference between Instagram fit and professional sport fit. Again, I'll point you in the direction of Frosted Tips. By all accounts he is great for the club, he's excellent with engaging with fans in both official and personal capacity, and supportive with the younger players. A genuine excellent person. That you just wish would have that next level on the field.
 
We allowed ourselves to live in fantasy land where a premiership was a realistic prospect this season. It wasn't. This season is all about changing the mentality of the playing group where they don't want to do the hard work and whipping them into shape where they can be a side that can challenge for a premiership.

These players are at a crossroad. They need to be honest with themselves and ask themselves if they have what it takes. Do they continue with the way they are going and being happy to just earn a pay cheque or do they buy in and do whatever it takes to bring success to the club? If they buy in, they will be premiership contenders.

These players got a huge shock this year, they weren't prepared for it. This is all on them. They are the ones that need to change their mentality.

Maguire was bought in to make us contenders THIS year. He spoke about this on his way in. Just sounds like we / the club are now just trying to shift the goal posts.

Put it this way, would Kevvie be doing worse than Maguire is doing right now with this squad?

Reynolds looks burned out and the timer is almost up on him. In fact, thanks to Maguire, the timer might already be going off. We needed to go for broke this year and definitely looks like we've achieved broke...n.

There are absolutely issues with the players, that has been clear for years but Kevvie seemed to be working through them. He had Paix and Hetherington being pushed out and hindsight is showing he was absolutely right to do so.

The one thing Maguire looks to have got right is Shibasaki but the question has to be, is Shibasaki doing phenomenally well or has Maguire simply managed to frag the team down to Shibasaki's level? Shibasaki has been a great call but at the same time, is not really setting the world on fire either the further the season has gone.

The entire team is heading backwards, its scary how quick it is happening under Maguire.
 
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