The Wests Tigers have become the second club to sack their coach on Tuesday, with Michael Maguire losing his job.
Maguire will follow Nathan Brown, who departed the New Zealand Warriors on Tuesday morning.
The Tigers released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, confirming that Maguire had been terminated, and that Brett Kimmorley would take over on an interim basis.
"Wests Tigers Head Coach, Michael Maguire, has today been terminated from his role, effective immediately," the statement read.
"Wests Tigers sincerely thanks Michael for all his hard work and effort over the past three and a half years. As this is no doubt a challenging time for all parties, the club would like to respect Michael's privacy, wish him all the very best and will make no further comment. For the rest of the season Brett Kimmorley will take over as Interim coach."
Maguire also becomes the third coach sacked this season, with the Canterbury Bulldogs formerly moving on Trent Barrett after Round 10.
Mick Potter is serving as interim coach at Belmore, while it has been announced that Stacey Jones is taking over through to the end of the year at the New Zealand Warriors.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the decision to axe Maguire was made at a Tuesday board meeting, shortly after training was completed, which the under siege head coach ran.
The Tigers have floundered in the bottom four for much of the season, and while they managed to record surprise back-to-back wins in Round 5 and 6 over the Parramatta Eels and South Sydney Rabbitohs - likely results which extended Maguire's tenure so that he didn't become the first coach to be sacked this season - their run of results since then has been all on the wrong side of the scoreboard, with the exception of a shaky win over the Bulldogs at Belmore in Round 11.
Previous reports had suggested the Tigers had placed a Round 13 deadline on a decision on Maguire, who only just survived the previous off-season.
Tim Sheens has previously talked about not wanting to move on Maguire, however, with just three wins on the board - still well short of the club's ambitions for this point of the season - they have seemingly elected to move on from Maguire.
It's understood that like the Bulldogs and Warriors, Cameron Ciraldo will be near the top of the wishlist for the Tigers, while Kristian Woolf, Paul Green and Shane Flanagan will also feature. Others who could potentially land a coaching job in the near future include Jason Ryles and former coaches John Morris and Steve Price.
From the Canterbury and Wests sackings, my take is that any coach taking on a head-coach role would do well to avoid one of those clubs with a Director Of Coaching sitting between them and the Board.
A Board that may be unhappy with an under-performing side may lack the confidence/cohones to sack the coach, but one with a DOC will pressure him to endorse their view that the coach should go. The DOC is unlikely to resist given that if nothing improves then the Board may sack them both.
It is hardly co-incidental that Gus Gould and Tim Sheens carry on drawing pay while Trent and Madge have been shown the door. It’s a shame that the board of each of the two clubs did not tell its DOC that he was to act as interim coach until the end of the year.
As for Nathan Brown, who can believe anything? Did he jump or was he pushed? When did he stop being happy going to NZ? I’d guess he lost his appetite for the job after the Matt Lodge fiasco, when the club lost a performing forward and a chunk of next year’s salary cap, and NB realized he’d have to deal (at close quarters) with the CEO who had masterminded all this.