Brooks to stay, gets over a million in 23

Few can deny that Wests Tigers halfback Luke Brooks has regressed under the coaching of Michael Maguire.

The problem for the Tigers, and any team looking at picking up the final year of his contract next year, is that Brooks’ salary increases significantly in 2023.

Brooks’ wage has been going up incrementally since he signed his current contract and is set to eclipse the $1million mark next year, when the Tigers have allocated him just under $1.1m in the salary cap.

Even if the Tigers wanted to release him, it’s hard to imagine a rival club agreeing to pick up a chunk of such a hefty salary. Tigers officials say there is absolutely no truth in the talk around a Kyle Flanagan-Brooks swap deal. Or that they have entertained a play for Flanagan’s father, Shane, to replace Maguire as coach.

The enormity of Brooks’ deal leaves the Tigers in a difficult situation. Back the coach who is struggling to get the most out of his highest-paid player - a deal in which he signed off on - or show faith in the halfback to return to the form that saw him win Dally M halfback of the year under Ivan Cleary in 2018.

Internally, 2022 was always viewed as a transition year for the Tigers - it was never about finals football. This season was going to either be the year Maguire finally silenced the critics by getting his players to improve or he would be the sacrificial lamb filling time until the next coach came in with an improved roster and more salary cap space.

The one thing club bosses eventually agreed on when deciding to stick by the coach last year was that if they had established that Maguire wasn’t the problem, they needed to give him more time to find out if he was the answer.

The mere suggestion they would sack the coach after four rounds, with a team severely impacted by injury, isn’t a reflection of the faith the club showed in him last year.

At some point in the next six to eight weeks, though, with matches against the Sharks, Eels, Rabbitohs, Dragons and Sea Eagles to come - the answers will become clear.

For all the criticism of Cronulla’s treatment of John Morris last year, the mid-season decision to appoint Craig Fitzgibbon for the following year gave him time to lure the likes of Nicho Hynes and Dale Finucane to the club. The Sharks seem to be reaping the rewards at the moment.

If it becomes clear that Maguire is not the answer - and the Tigers want someone like Panthers assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo - you’d expect the chances of him accepting the job would improve if he was afforded the time to tap players he didn’t want and woo players he did want.

Maguire was never given that chance, having taken over from Ivan Cleary just weeks before the start of the 2019 preseason. He has privately complained for the past three-and-a-bit years about the roster and salary cap situation he inherited.

The Tigers can’t afford for history to repeat. At some point within the next two months they will be urged to either sack him or back him. Perhaps then they’ll know what to do with Brooks.