Wrong Code, Wrong Site, But Mate — We Get It

Look, I’ll be upfront — this is an AFL site, I barrack for the Magpies, and I have absolutely no business writing about rugby league. But sometimes the footy gods drop something in your lap that you simply can not ignore.

Brisbane Broncos coach Michael Maguire copped a 42-point flogging from South Sydney on Thursday night and fronted the cameras afterwards declaring his side is “still well and truly alive” in their title defence. He even acknowledged people “probably think I’m mad.” Mate. Mate. Welcome to the club — and I mean that sincerely.

Because I Know Exactly How That Bloke Feels

Every Collingwood supporter reading this — and I know you’re out there, battered and bruised from whatever the umpires decided to conjure up last weekend — knows the particular flavour of delusion Maguire is cooking with right now.

It’s not stupidity. It’s not spin. It’s the blind, stubborn, slightly unhinged conviction that your team is still capable of something special even when the evidence is pointing the other direction like a broken compass.

We’ve all been there. I’ve been there so many times I should of applied for a lease.

The Pies went into 2023 written off. Went into plenty of seasons written off. Craig McRae didn’t stand up and say “yeah, fair enough, pack it in lads.” He backed his group. And look what happened.

The Art of the Defiant Press Conference

There is a genuine craft to the post-belting press conference. A good coach doesn’t crumble. A great coach reframes.

In AFL circles, we’ve seen it done brilliantly and we’ve seen it done terribly. The ones who try to sell you absolute sunshine after a 10-goal loss and pretend nothing went wrong? Nobody buys that. But the ones who acknowledge the hurt, stare into the camera and say “we’re still here” — that lands differently.

Maguire did the second version. He wasn’t pretending the flogging didn’t happen. He just refused to let it be the last word. And as a Collingwood man who has watched us drag ourselves off the canvas more times than I can count, that kind of mentality resonates even across the code divide.

What AFL Coaches Could Actually Learn Here

Now here’s where I bring it back home, because this is FootyTalk and we do have standards.

The AFL season is long and brutal and full of moments where a team’s supporters — and maybe teh coaching staff — start doing the maths on September. You get smashed by 60 points in Round 12 and suddenly the armchair experts are declaring your finals hopes deader than a Thursday night crowd at Docklands.

But here’s the thing. The ladder doesn’t lie at the end of the year, but it lies constantly in the middle. Teams come from nowhere. Teams collapse from everywhere. The game is too long, too unpredictable and too brilliantly chaotic to call in July.

\p>I’ve watched Collingwood fans — myself very much included — write off the season in August only to be screaming our lungs out in a preliminary final a month later. The calculus of September is always more complicated than round-by-round results suggest.

The Real Question for Struggling AFL Sides Right Now

Cast your eye around the competition. There are clubs right now that are technically still in the hunt but whose own fans have already mentally packed up the deck chairs and are planning their post-September footy diet of country league and trial matches.

And I get it. I really do. When you’re watching your midfield brigade get monstered week after week, when your inside 50 entries look like a Melways being read upside down, and when a crucial free kick somehow gets paid against your ruckman for breathing too loudly — again — it tests the faith.

But Maguire’s point, stripped of its NRL context, is actually a valid one for any competition where finals qualification is still mathematically possible. If you’ve still got the numbers, you’ve still got the dream. Simple as that.

Collingwood’s Own Version of This Story

I’ll be honest about my boys. There’ve been weeks this year where I’ve sat in front of the TV with my arms folded thinking “what are we doing here?” The contest hasn’t always gone our way. The decisions from the men in yellow haven’t always — look, I won’t go there, they’re making the calls they see, I respect that, I just reckon they definately see things differently when we’re involved but that’s a column for another day.

The point is, even in those dark moments, you don’t write it off. You back the group. You back the coach. You remind yourself that football is not a science and the team that looked hopeless in June has won the granny in October before.

That’s the beauty of this game — either code, frankly.

A Word to the NRL Faithful (From an Accidental Guest)

If any rugby league fans have somehow stumbled onto FootyTalk today — welcome, pull up a chair, we’ve got strong opinions and lukewarm opinions and everything in between — this is what I’d say to you about your Broncos situation.

A coach who gets thumped and immediately fronts up and says “we’re alive” is doing something important. He’s not managing expectations down. He’s not hedging. He’s throwing his credibility on the table and saying: watch this space.

Sometimes that blows up in your face spectacularly and the press conference clip ends up on a “didn’t age well” highlight reel. But sometimes — and this is the part where sport earns its place in our lives — sometimes it’s the beginning of the comeback story.

Football rewards conviction. Both codes.

Right, Back to the Footy That Matters

I’ve spent 800 words talking about rugby league on an AFL website and I regret nothing. Because the underlying message is one that every football fan — Collingwood, Richmond, Freo, whoever your mob is — should hold onto when the season feels like it’s slipping away.

Back your team. Believe in the group. Understand that the ladder is a snapshot and not a prophecy. And if your coach fronts up after a hiding and says “we’re still in this” — don’t roll your eyes. That conviction, that refusal to accept the narrative, is often the first ingredient in a run that nobody saw coming.

Michael Maguire might be wrong. His Broncos might not get the job done. But he’s not mad for saying it. He’s a football coach doing what good football coaches do.

Carn the Pies — and yeah, good luck to the Broncos too, just this once.