Warrington boss Daryl Powell says "disappointed" Josh McGuire is considering appealing the massive 12-match ban which has all but wiped out his season.
The controversial Aussie forward copped the huge suspension at an operational rules tribunal last night. The ex-Kangaroos star, 33, was found guilty of using "unacceptable language" in last month’s loss against Leigh and also fined £1,000. He had already been suspended for seven games for the same charge after being red carded - also against Leigh - on his Warrington debut in a pre-season friendly.
Powell addressed the media on the subject for the first time this lunchtime. Asked whether he was disappointed by the situation, he told a press conference: "I won’t comment on it. Josh has the right to appeal so it’d be unfair for me to comment on anything about that, to be honest. We’ll leave that as it is: he’s the right to appeal and we’ll let that go through its due process.”
There has been reports in Australia that McGuire could be sacked barely six months into his two-year Warrington deal. Powell maintained: "I won’t comment on it. There’s a lot of stuff out there at the moment. I won’t add fuel to any fire with regards to Josh. He has the appeal process to go through and I’ll leave it at that for now."
If the ex-Queensland State of Origin star does decide to launch an appeal, it could happen as soon as Thursday but, either way, Powell is unlikely to consider him for selection for Saturday's home game with Huddersfield. He said: "Josh will decide whether he wants to appeal or not and I think he's got seven days. If he wanted to do it early, it'd be heard Thursday but I'm not 100 percent on that. I'd probably (discount from selection) just to give him the space to make his decision and do what he wants to do. I haven’t made a final decision on that. But at this moment in time he just has to make his decision on what he’s going to do."
Asked how the player is after last night's ban, Powell added: "Obviously, he’s pretty disappointed. I sat down with him this morning to discuss things and I spoke to (Warrington owner) Simon Moran last night who was asking how he was. We obviously want to make sure he’s OK so Kylie (Leuluai), our player welfare manager, has spent a bit of time with him and he’ll continue to do that.”
McGuire arrived from Sydney as one of Powell’s main signings for the 2023 campaign but didn’t make his Super League debut until April due to his initial ban. Indeed, he has only played seven games for Wolves and - unless he successfully appeals - will not be available again until September. He already had a lengthy rap sheet from his time Down Under including receiving two five-game bans as recently as the 2021 season while with St George Illawarra.
While in the NRL, the ex-North Queensland enforcer was also fined for eye gouging and received bans for high shots and dissent towards officials. Warrington are second in Super League, level at the top with Catalans, but have lost their last two games against Leigh and Hull FC ahead of Huddersfield's visit.
Meanwhile, McGuire's ban has accelerated the club's need to recruit given fellow prop Thomas Mikaele returned to the NRL in May for family reasons and second-row Matty Nicholson is a long-term injury. Great Britain prop Joe Philbin will also miss Saturday's game after picking up a shoulder issue against Hull at Magic Weekend.
Powell said: "We've been looking hard anyway for a middle unit forward so it does make it more important. The boys are battling hard in the middle. Paul Vaughan last week was doing massive minutes and a great job. We’ll keep doing that but ultimately it’s something we need to address but there’s nothing close at the moment. We’ve looked at quite a few options here and in Australia. Joe (Philbin) won't play Saturday but hopefully that's just a one week injury and Josh Drinkwater picked up an ankle injury, too, which keeps him out."
