Wednesday Wind Up: The truth about 'Madge & Payne'

James Hooper's Wednesday Wind Up dives into the truth about Payne Hass' departure from Red Hill, and what it really means about Michael Maguire:

Forget the happy families BS PR spin coming out of the Broncos, The Payne Haas decision to join South Sydney tells us everything we need to know.

Fresh off smashing a 19-year title drought and winning his first premiership as a player, Haas decides to up and leave to play under Wayne Bennett. Enough said. End of story.

The best front rower in the NRL clearly wasn’t 100 per cent all in on what Madge is selling at Red Hill. And that’s OK. People can point the finger at Madge all they like. History tells the story here. The blokes won two NRL premierships at two of the biggest clubs in the game. Who cares if he’s only got a three-year time frame before it all starts to go pear-shaped and players get burned out.

Maguire was hired by the Brisbane Broncos to end the club’s longest NRL premiership drought since they entered the competition in 1988. Prior to Madge getting the Broncos to go on that magic carpet ride in the finals last year, Wayne Bennett was the only coach to truly have built success at Brisbane.

So Maguire’s results speak for themselves. He was hired to win a comp. He ticked the box first season at Red Hill.

Now, because he’s a lunatic who’s wired differently he’s chasing another one this season. Success with the NSW Origin side. Success as the coach of New Zealand. Unfortunately the only club Madge hasn’t had success at is the Wests Tigers. Like him or loathe him, Madge knows how what winning looks like.

Along the way it’s cost him some elite of the elite players. Sam Burgess and Ben Teo got burned out at Souths. Burgess and Teo were so over it they went 12,000km away and played rugby union in England. Ironically, Teo now works as an assistant coach under Madge at the Broncos.

Madge's job now is to unite the splintered Broncos playing group and win Thursday night against the Eels.

We’re tipping he’ll quickly turns things around.

Enjoying Fanatics' Clubhouse content? Subscribe to the Clubhouse Newsletter HERE.