Thursday morning was supposed to be the chance for Michael Maguire to explain what went wrong with Brisbane Broncos assistant coach Ben Te'o.
Why would the defensive mastermind of last year's premiership just suddenly up and leave without so much as an explanation?
Of course, the media has attempted to provide one. The two fell out. The Broncos blocked Te'o from taking a job with the QRL in the State of Origin system.
There were other theories thrown around, although the Origin one seems the most plausible, and Dave Donaghy - the club's CEO - all but admitted it.
But the whole situation could have been buried, ended, put to bed, on the spot, if Maguire had simply said more than "we have a game tomorrow night" during his Thursday morning press conference.
It was a phrase uttered relentlessly throughout, with other variations thrown in.
Focused on the playing group. Focused on backing up the second half against the Storm.
Whichever way you spin it, Maguire, who did at one point apologise for not providing journalists at the press conference with more, did not want to talk about his assistant coach who tendered his resignation this week.
In fairness, you can see what Maguire was aiming to achieve.
He was aiming to say "nothing to see here, jog on."
But that's not how this works, and will only feed into the narratives around the pressure that is on Maguire over his coaching methods, over his slow start to the season prior to the Broncos' Round 3 win against the Storm, over Payne Haas' looming departure at the end of this season.
In fact, it was put to him by one reporter that something was wrong with the club.
That maybe the departure of Haas, the departure of Te'o, other questions around the Gordon Tallis fiasco that has taken off at Red Hill in the past fortnight, all meant something was just a little bit on the nose for Queensland's favourite sporting club.
"Welcome to the Broncos," seemed to be the line of responding from Maguire, who played off the question by saying last week's performance against Melbourne proves that isn't the case.
"The performance that I saw last Friday pretty well determines how I believe in the football team. They dug in for each other, they supported each other. Payne Haas came out after halftime when he probably didn't need to and he was incredible, so it probably says a lot about where we are at at the moment," the veteran coach, who has had nothing but success with everything he has touched since leaving the Wests Tigers," McGuire said in response.
Maguire also revealed during the press conference that he "enjoys" taking advice from other people, is doing less coaching now than at any point of his career, and had no qualms about how the Broncos would replace Te'o, saying his experienced playing group and coaching staff would pick up the slack.
"We have got processes and things in place already, and you have to remember I have a pretty smart playing group, I have some experience there across the group itself. You also have to remember the year we have just been through. We are 12 months on, so that 12 months on gives us experience of how we are as a team, and you saw that last Friday. Being able to do that is a lot more on the players, so coaching in the systems we are in does become easier," Maguire said when asked how the Broncos were preparing defensively given Te'o's loss.
So he said a lot, without saying a lot.
His ideal scenario was getting back to talking about tomorrow night's game, about the club's change of tactics against the Storm, and about what they are doing to go out and win back-to-back premierships.
And you know what?
He would have got there if he didn't spend the first half of the press conference not answering the questions that needed to be answered.
All it would have taken was a quick explainer. Yes, Ben wanted to coach at Origin level. No, we didn't want him to. We went our separate ways.
And that actually would have been somewhat fair enough.
Instead, the answers haven't been provided, the questions around what's wrong with the club will continue, and the distractions for the playing group, which have been numerous ever since they lost the World Club Challenge to Hull KR, will continue to play out in the background.
That's not to say a club facing distractions has never seen success on the footy field before, but Maguire has actually done his playing group a disservice by trying to keep them seltered.
Instead of burying the distractions, they will now be at fever pitch.
Why didn't Maguire want to talk? What's really going on? What is being hidden?
Expect the Broncos to be under plenty of fire if they can't beat the Dolphins on Friday evening.
Maguire's press conference at the end of the game could be must-watch no matter the result.
Maybe by then he will be ready to talk.
