A coach can earn plenty of goodwill for winning a grand final.
Brisbane Broncos coach Michael Maguire did that and more by winning one in his first season with the Broncos last year.
The Broncos were, if we are serious, never supposed to win last year's grand final, but an incredible run to the finish line saw them not only make the top eight after that being up in the air at one point, but beat the Raiders in a thriller, knock over the four-time defending champions, and then hold their nerve in the big one.
It was arguably the crowning achievement of Maguire's coaching career after he was brought in as Kevin Walters' replacement.
The coach has a reputation for his intense training style and has turned the Broncos from a middling club into a top one in 12 months.
That followed his enormous success with the New Zealand national side and NSW Blues State of Origin team in between NRL coaching jobs.
Before that, he joined the long list of strugglers at the Wests Tigers, having originally made his mark at the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Whatever happens to Maguire in Brisbane, he will go down as one of the great coaches. Winning at the Origin level, international level without Australia, and premierships at two different clubs is a very, very impressive resume.
What that doesn't tell you, though, is that he is now skating on thin ice, whether the Broncos continue to say he has their full support or not.
Coming into 2026, the biggest question facing the Red Hill-based operation was around Maguire's long-term prospects.
Could he keep his side together when the track record said his playing group would struggle to keep up with his methods in the long term?
The speculation, the reports, and the treatment through the coverage of Maguire have maybe been considered unfair throughout the season, and for a premiership winner, it's certainly an easy argument to make.
But the proof was always going to be in the pudding.
That, now, is a very miserable pudding.
Brisbane has lost 12 of their last 13 games. The only win during that time came against the Penrith Panthers in what was a major surprise.
However, given the nature of how they are losing games is the biggest cause for concern.
On Saturday evening, their defence clocked off on multiple occasions as the Warriors ran in 40 points.
Last weekend, the Broncos conceded another 40 points after holding a 24-0 lead against the high-flying Dolphins.
Before that, they let in 30 points against an injury-ravaged Knights at home.
Brisbane might be limping towards the finish line with injuries not helping their cause, but the cold, hard truth of the matter is that they have let in 110 points in their last 3 games.
Maybe dating back to early on in their losing streak, it was a 32-4 loss to the Sea Eagles, and a 30-26 loss to the Dragons, who won their first game of the year in Round 13, which should have set the alarm bells ringing.
Maguire has chopped and changed his side, but nothing is working, and the only answer you're left with, when you watch the way they play on Saturday evening, is that his playing group has no intention of playing for their coach.
It's an accusation that is tough to make for a squad that won the premiership under the same coach last year, but there are a few other answers that make sense.
Maguire cut the shape of a man under fire during his post-game press conference on Saturday evening.
He wouldn't say what had gone wrong with his side despite claiming to have the answers. That in itself should be alarming to fans and supporters of the club.
Why won't the coach in the middle of a 12-out-of-13 match-losing streak open up about what has gone wrong?
Give the fans some hope that maybe things can turn around.
Maguire, in recent weeks, has been given full backing from the club's board.
They see him as the coach in 2027 and beyond.
But how long will that last for?
Brisbane needed to, at the very least, be competitive over the final weeks of the 2026 campaign, but if anything, they have gone backwards in all of the key effort areas.
That shows a group of players who have utterly clocked off.
Maybe there isn't a lot of experience in the dressing room playing as the defending premiers and being the hunted every week.
But that doesn't explain the drop so far on the ladder.
You could argue that Brisbane over-achieved last season, but it still takes more than just a natural flattening of expectations to drop from the premiership to the bottom four.
The only answer is Maguire.
He needs his players to show something, even if it's not winning form, over the final three weeks of the season.
If he doesn't, he might be looking for another job in 2027.
