FORMER premiership-winning coach Michael Maguire has rejected a multimillion-dollar offer to coach the Manly Sea Eagles as Trent Barrett’s replacement.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Maguire informed the Sea Eagles owner and chairman Scott Penn of his decision on Thursday before leaving to prepare the Kiwi Test side for the Test match against the Kangaroos on Saturday week in Auckland.
They had been in talks for several weeks.
“I have informed them (Penn) that I’ve declined the opportunity to coach the Sea Eagles,” Maguire told The Daily Telegraph, “I’d prefer not to go into the reasons why.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone else.
“I’ve got a big challenge with the Kiwis and that’s where my focus is right now.”
It now leaves the highly regarded coach in pole position to take on the head coaching role at either the Wests Tigers or the Brisbane Broncos.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the poor training facilities at Manly, which led to Barrett handing in his resignation, were a contributing factor in Maguire rejecting their three-year offer.
Barrett was forced to bring in his own outdoor furniture to use at Sea Eagles HQ.
Since being dumped by the Rabbitohs and replaced by Dally M coach-of-the-year Anthony Seibold, Maguire has been working for the NRL in a senior advisory role in the refereeing department.
His decision to reject the Sea Eagles now throws the door open for former Gold Coast Titans coach John Cartwright to take over from his great mate Barrett at Brookvale next year.
The situation has become farcical on the northern beaches with the Sea Eagles still to finalise a departure plan for Barrett who has handed in his resignation but legally must remain until July 2019 because of a clause in his contract.
Manly players — and fans — are becoming extremely frustrated by the situation.
The players return to training for the 2019 season in three weeks not knowing if Barrett will still be there or if another coach will be in charge.
The club has had three months since Barrett informed the board of his intentions to find a new coach.
While their premiership rivals are well down the track in recruitment planning, Manly is still cleaning up its salary cap mess and has no-one to determine which players should be released or signed.
