Cameron Murray’s glowing endorsement for Michael Maguire in push for NSW coaching job
After reports surfaced this week of Maguire verbally accepting the position as Brad Fittler‘s successor, the NSWRL board issued a statement clarifying the situation.
“NSWRL chairman Paul Conlon has advised that Michael Maguire is the preferred candidate, however the process is ongoing and there has been no appointment at this stage,” the statement read.
Murray endorsed Maguire as the new man for the job when asked about the situation on Nine’s Sports Sunday, after featuring in
I think it [his relationship with Maguire at the Rabbitohs] got cut a little bit short,” Murray said.
“Thought I was going to be under him for the 2018 season, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.
“Madge was a massive part of my career, particularly early on. He was in and around the club since I was about 15, 16 years old coming through the junior ranks and instilled a lot of belief in me and he was a great mentor for me coming through and … gifted me my debut. That’s where my career started and I’ve got a lot of admiration and gratitude towards Madge for what he did for me at the start of my career.
“So it’d be awesome to team up with him again and play under him in one of the biggest arenas that rugby league produces.
“We’ll wait and see what happens there, but it would be awesome.”
The prospect of Maguire taking on the NSW job while retaining his position as New Zealand’s coach has brought about talk of a conflict of interest.
The 2014 premiership-winning coach has been encouraging young players to pledge their allegiance to the Kiwis, thus giving up the chance to represent NSW, but he’d be torn if he was installed as the man for the Blues gig.
Players are not allowed to feature in State of Origin if their international allegiance lies with a tier-one nation other than Australia.
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