Adam Reynolds describes Martin Taupau's Instagram act as 'not a good look' after prop's apology

Broncos captain Adam Reynolds has described Martin Taupau liking an Instagram video post criticising coach Michael Maguire as "not a good look" amid the club's poor form.

Elijah Taylor, who played under Maguire at Wests Tigers across the 2019 and 2020 seasons, posted a video to his Footy Hacks page in which he outlined three reasons why the Broncos were suffering under the coach: intensity, training methods and time efficiency.

Talk of Broncos players being disgruntled with Maguire's hard edge has been bubbling away ever since he arrived at the club at the start of the 2025 pre-season.

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That talk is now louder than ever after Taupau endorsed Taylor's fierce criticism.

"The club's gone into meltdown," said Nine rugby league reporter Ben Dobbin on Triple M radio.

"They're absolutely filthy. They are extremely disappointed. They hate to be put into this situation and they're trying to change the culture.

"They will be meeting with the player in the coming days and there will be ramifications."

Reynolds addressed the matter on Triple M on Friday.

"It's not a good look, but we are united as a group, we are moving in a good direction," Reynolds said.

"Not everyone is going to agree, there's going to be some disgruntled [players] there, but as leaders in a team, we're really strong in the direction the club's heading and the coaching staff.

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"We do train hard but training hard gets you to where you need to be. You can't tell me Penrith and the Melbourne Storm haven't been training hard for years.

"I've had experiences with him [Maguire] in the past and he is a carer, he cares about his players, he's passionate, he wants to win, and we are all on the same page and we're all moving forward together as a club."

Reynolds indicated himself that Taupau would be spoken to by the club.

"It's pretty fresh to be honest. I only heard about it half an hour ago," he said.

"It is disappointing because we're creating a good culture at the club and everyone here is buying in."

Taupau played under Maguire in four Test matches with the Kiwis in 2018.

"Whether he really meant it or not I'm not too sure," Reynolds added, speaking of Taupau's Instagram activity.

"But that's a conversation Marty will have with the club and they'll handle that internally.

"But what I can say is we're all on board.

"You take all this talk away through winning and that's what we're striving to do."

Taylor said he'd been inundated on Instagram with people asking why the Broncos weren't firing under Maguire, who was widely tipped to make Brisbane a top-four side again in his first season.

Instead, the Broncos are sitting in seventh on the ladder after round 10, and they have only won one of their past five games.

"Number one, bro, his intensity," Taylor said.

"So intense. I've never seen a coach ride so hard, ride the game so hard. After a win, the world is a better place, it's a better place out there. After a loss, bro, you're off to a funeral, cuz, big time, and someone's going to get cooked in that video session.

"Those video sessions, bro, are the most intense I've ever been in. Like, squeezed up, seat belt, arse cheeks are tight. Proper intense, bro.

"When he's angry, bro, the veins are out, the neck starts snapping, and the tongue comes out. Proper intense, bro."

Shortly after beginning life at the Broncos, Maguire ran his new squad through a three-day army-style camp west of Brisbane, and after being criticised at the Rabbitohs and Tigers for pushing players too hard, he was suddenly attracting more of the same criticism at the powerhouse Queensland club.

South Sydney broke a 43-year title drought under Maguire in 2014, but the club fell apart on the field in the years that followed and Maguire was sacked at the end of the 2017 season.

He took charge of the Tigers ahead of the 2019 season and was booted midway through the club's 2022 campaign.

Taylor clearly has bad memories of the training he did under Maguire in Concord.

"Number two, bro, training methods," he said.

"Ninety-five per cent of the time you're on the field it's full contact.

"I remember we played [a] Saturday night NRL game, round three I think it was, and then Sunday was recovery, a long-arse recovery day, a long day. And then Monday was a full day, so it was a weights session, field session, gym session, wrestle session, video session two days after an NRL game.

"That was the day when I was like, 'What the?!'

"Straight up, bro, the training methods, crazy. I'll never shy away from the hard mahi [a Maori term meaning "hard work"], but there comes a point where you're thinking, 'The more I do this I'm going to get injured'. Straight up, that's what I'm thinking."

Taylor then said: "You haven't done an NRL pre-season if you haven't done a Michael Maguire pre-season. That shit will change your life, bro. Wow".

In the NRL, Taylor was also coached by Ivan Cleary (Warriors, Panthers and Tigers), Matthew Elliott (Warriors), Anthony Griffin (Panthers) and Jason Taylor (Tigers).

He left for the Super League after the 2020 season.

"Number three, bro, time efficiency," Taylor said.

"[He'll say], 'Let's have a meeting for a meeting to review the meeting you just had, and then we'll plan a meeting we're going to do in the future and then we'll have a meeting about what we're going to talk [about] in that meeting'. Long-arse day, bro. Get home, the kids don't know who I am anymore.

"There's nothing worse in footy than when you're running out for a game-day warm-up and your body is sore, and you're thinking, 'I'm about to play an 80-minute game, bro, and my body feels like this'.

"If Madge can clear that up I'm sure he can turn the Broncos' season around."

The Broncos will take on the Dragons at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday afternoon.