The NRL club informed Maguire on Tuesday his three-and-a-half-year tenure was over, after winning just three of 12 games so far this season.
Brett Kimmorley will take over on an interim basis.
Maguire’s exit comes after he only narrowly held onto the job at the end of last season.
A second review in the space of nine months was enough to end his tenure, with the club now on the look out for a full-time replacement.
“Wests Tigers sincerely thanks Michael for all his hard work and effort over the past three and a half years,” the club said in a statement.
Maguire was spotted at the Tigers’ Concord headquarters earlier on Tuesday, with players fronting the media still unaware of the drama that was about to ensue.
“We haven’t been told anything. I guess it’s all speculation,” five eighth Luke Brooks said.
“Madge has been in and we’ve all come in and it’s just business as usual.”
Brooks, though, admitted a decision on the coach’s future one way or another would probably be helpful to the Tigers.
“It would be good to have some clarity,” he said.
“But as players we’re just going to leave that up to the people who make that decision. We can’t worry about that.
“We’ve got to worry about playing footy. We have to win.”
Maguire’s exit comes on the same day Nathan Brown was axed at the Warriors, potentially opening the door for him to walk straight in as Brown’s replacement.
A premiership-winning mentor with South Sydney in 2014, Maguire already has a connection with New Zealand rugby league as coach of the Kiwis, while the Warriors will return to their Auckland home base next year.
The Tigers’ decision mean there are now three clubs in the hunt for a coach next year, with Canterbury also looking for a full-time replacement for Trent Barrett.
Cameron Ciraldo looms as the most likely option for the Tigers if the Penrith assistant is interested, having been linked to the club last year.
Ciraldo has served a long apprenticeship under Ivan Cleary and Anthony Griffin at the Panthers, and would likely be in the position to pick whichever job he chooses.
Former Cronulla coach John Morris could also be an option, having previously played for the Tigers.
Shane Flanagan, Paul Green, Kristian Woolf and Jason Ryles are other mentors believed to be caught up in the current coaching merry-go-round.
Nathan Brown sacked by Warriors
Former Warriors coach Tony Kemp has warned the club faces an uphill battle to attract a new coach after Nathan Brown became the fifth mentor in 10 years to leave the club.
Brown’s tenure as coach was terminated early on Tuesday morning, following a meeting in the aftermath of the club’s fifth straight loss.
New Zealand great Stacey Jones has been appointed on an interim basis, having only taken up the assistant’s role at the end of last season.
Brown had been contracted at the Warriors until the end of next year, but had already told officials he did not want to move back to New Zealand long-term and could not commit beyond that.
Ultimately though, the club’s poor start to 2022 and Saturday night’s horror outing against Manly meant officials decided to move immediately.
“We fully appreciate his position and the call he has made,” CEO Cameron George said.
“Given those circumstances we agreed we needed to make an immediate change.”
The decision leaves Brown’s career at a crossroads, having previously coached both St George Illawarra and Newcastle in the NRL.
Brown becomes the second coach to go in the NRL this year, after Trent Barrett’s exit from Canterbury last month.
Maguire could potentially loom as an option for the Warriors given he currently has the New Zealand international job.
Tonga coach Kristian Woolf would be another genuine contender, while Cameron Ciraldo and Jason Ryles are considered the next coaches in waiting as NRL assistants.
The likes of Shane Flanagan and Paul Green are also hoping to get back into the coaching game.
Whether any of that group would choose to take charge of the Warriors is another story.
The Warriors have now gone through five full-time coaches in the past 10 years, while Todd Payten also spent the best part of a season in charge in an interim role before knocking them back for North Queensland.
They have also endured a bad run ahead of next year’s move back to New Zealand after COVID, with Matt Lodge, Euan Aitken and Kodi Nikorima all exiting the club.
“It looks like we have a structure that people don’t want to be associated with,” former coach Kemp told radio station SEN.
“It comes on the back of a number of things.
“It shows there is a weak underbelly at the club currently and the people who run the club need to sort it out.”
Kemp claimed the club needed change at the top, with owner Mark Robinson taking a backward step.
“If he doesn’t step out of what is going on at the moment, I can’t see a coach of any calibre saying I am going to come and set something up,” Kemp said.
“That’s just not going to work.
“Our average coach gets a couple of years to rebuild it all again, and try and get some success in the club.”
