Maguire told: You have to deliver

WESTS Tigers chairwoman Marina Go has a clear message to incoming coach Michael Maguire — this is not a rebuild.

Go also declared the Tigers need to end their seven-year finals exile. The Tigers have seemingly been in a constant rebuild since Tim Sheens was axed in 2012.

Mick Potter, Jason Taylor and Ivan Cleary were unsuccessful in bringing sustained success to the Tigers, who won their only premiership in 2005.

But Go said the foundations for success had now been laid.

“This is not a rebuild,” Go said. “The hard work was started with Jason and Ivan built on that.

“Michael has a platform now he can build from.

“I’ve had a couple of discussions with (Maguire) during the process. He was clear about that. He said he felt we had a really good solid group of players. There are some opportunities to fill some gaps on our list. We know that.

“This is a guy who likes to win premierships. He has been very upfront about that.

“He said to me ‘you know I like to win premierships’.

“We didn’t say he has to win one next year or 2020 but he is focused on winning.

“That’s important for where our clubs sits now.

“Our club hasn’t played finals football since 2011. That’s a long break.

“Ninth isn’t good enough. We need to turn our fans’ hope into reality. We are not saying we need to win the competition next year or be in the top four but there is an expectation that very soon and hopefully next year we have to be playing finals football. We need to be

“This is a guy who likes to win premierships”

eighth or better. Anything less than that would be frustrating for our fans.”

When it became clear Cleary’s position at the club was untenable, Maguire and Wayne Bennett reached out to the Tigers. Go said having the calibre of premiership-winning coaches wanting to join their club had shown how far the Tigers had progressed.

“It was harder four years ago because we were dealing with a lot of issues in the club that were really about rebuilding the entire club,” Go said.

“Not just the on-field component. At the time we were looking for the best coach we could get.

“A lot of coaches approached us but we weren’t necessarily being approached by coaches who had a lot of experience. What we had we were really happy with.

“There are leaders for an organisation at a moment in time. We don’t have any regrets about what decisions have been made.

“Even though the recent coach stayed less time than we would have hoped he still did a great job. So did Jason Taylor in his first few years.

“It’s recognition for us that we had two of the most successful coaches in the league approach us to say that would be interested in coaching should Ivan leave.”