Why McGuire turned to Gee before leaving Broncos

When Josh McGuire was thinking about whether he would leave the Broncos to join the Cowboys he turned to his long-time mentor Andrew Gee for advice.

McGuire credits the Brisbane life member and four-time premiership winner for giving him a pathway to the top after Gee recruited him as a 14-year-old to the Aspley Devils and then delivered him to the Broncos.

So as McGuire wrestled with the massive decision to leave the Broncos after 192 games and take up a four-year deal at the Cowboys,  Gee was the rock he leaned on. 

"GG has been massive in my career and still is. I trust him. I don’t trust a lot of people, but I trust him," McGuire told NRL.com at Cowboys HQ in Townsville.

"He was one of the first guys I spoke to when I was thinking about making the move up here and a massive reason why I decided to pull the trigger and do it.

"He is someone I bounce a lot of stuff off and confide in because he is a fantastic man. I have the utmost respect for him.

"He got me into rugby league and got me to the Broncos. He took a punt on me and then guided my career."

Gee has great respect for close mate Paul Green so it was no surprise he gave the thumbs-up for McGuire’s move to North Queensland after the 28-year-old felt he needed to move out of his comfort zone.

I want my teammates to know that I will do anything they ask of me and GG definitely lived and breathed that

Josh McGuire

McGuire earlier told NRL.com how influential Green also was in his decision to move to the Cowboys.

It's a long way from McGuire's days as a promising junior ice hockey player, when he attracted the interest of scouts in Canada, but was, by his own admission, sliding off the rails.

"I played a lot of inline hockey and ice hockey. To be honest I was a bit of a rogue kid and didn’t know where I stood or what I wanted to do," McGuire said.

"I was in a lot of trouble growing up and doing things that I probably shouldn’t have, as most 14-year-old kids do.

"Mum and Dad did their best to keep me on the straight and narrow but I am one of six boys and I liked to have a drink and liked to go out and muck around.

"Andrew Gee came along and got me playing footy, and he gave me a kick in the arse when I needed it. He was honest with me. He didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear. He told me what I needed to hear and that is something I respect him for."

Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of Gee's exit from the Broncos in 2014 as football operations manager, but there is no mystery about how he is regarded by his former teammates at Brisbane.

Three-time premiership winner Shane Webcke told NRL.com recently that Gee was the man who made the young forwards at the Broncos in the late 1990s realise the significance of the emblem they were wearing. 

It is no surprise that McGuire has modelled his career on Gee's footballing ethos.

"Everyone brings different things to a team but he was a guy that brought steel and cohesion. It was like ‘I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine’,” McGuire said.

"I want my teammates to know that I will do anything they ask of me and GG definitely lived and breathed that. That is something I always respected about him as a man and as a footballer and why I still look to him for guidance about my football career."