Reynolds relishing challenge of pre-season after Maguire reunion

Broncos halfback Adam Reynolds is no stranger to a Michael Maguire pre-season regime, but said he was enjoying the challenge of keeping up with his younger teammates in a bid to improve.

Battling the Brisbane humidity as the players ran repeated lengths of their Red Hill training field, Reynolds said he liked the competition from players ‘nipping at his heels’ in the squad for his position.

“I like the competition, the competition brings out the best in everyone,” Reynolds said.

“You see those blokes leading from the front and obviously they are a bit younger, bit fresher and fitter, but it's good, it gives me something to chase.

“I love seeing players in my position excel, it obviously drives me to want to get better each and every day.

“I continually challenge them as well in certain areas of the park, whether it's trying to make them one or two percent better each and every day; and the better they are at training, the better it's going to make me.

“It's a team collective out there and as long as we're driving each other to hold each other accountable to our standards, there's no reason why everyone in the squad should get better.

“I think the great teams are built on hard work and we're certainly working hard out there as a squad to achieve some great things throughout the year.

“We're building a great culture here and everyone is working hard and trying to achieve your best every day and no different to the youngest member in the squad trying to go out there and better themselves.”

Entering his 14th season in the NRL, Reynolds won a premiership with Maguire at the helm of the Rabbitohs in 2014 and he knows better than most the tough approach to pre-season taken by the coach who was brought in to place Kevin Walters after a disappointing 2023 season where they missed the eight.

Since their days together at South Sydney, Reynolds said while some things remained the same, he had seen an evolution of Maguire the coach after his successful time with other teams, notably the successful NSW Blues and New Zealand sides.

“He's changed a little bit, which is good, he's obviously learnt a fair bit over his time at a few different organisations, he's very well experienced coach now,” Reynolds said.

“He knows what works, he knows what doesn't work.

“It’s us as players that need to have the faith in that and believe in his direction.

“It's been a great start to the pre-season, can’t fault anything.

“It's certainly different, Madge and the other assistants have their ways of getting around things and it's us as players to buy into that.

“I loved my time under Kev. I love Kev.

“But obviously you have got to park that to the side now and move on.

“Obviously Madge brings something different to what Kev did and as a team, we just got to buy in make sure we're all on the same page.

“(But) there's a fair few similarities (to Maguire of old), and a few new things which is obviously good.

“But it's a fresh squad to Madge. Obviously, he’s got to get those boundaries and those beliefs … and everyone's working super hard here to turn around the disappointing season that we had and everyone's buying in, which is great.

“He’ll put his spin on things. He's got a certain standard that you buy into and everyone's been fantastic.

“You can set yourself up in the pre-season for a good season and that’s what we’re certainly doing.”