Michael Maguire may not be out of a job for long with the Bulldogs looking to add experience to their coaching staff after the appointment of rookie Cameron Ciraldo.

However Maguire is keeping his options open with reports he met with Eels head coach Brad Arthur.

The Bulldogs announced Ciraldo’s five-year deal on Sunday — a move that News Corp journalist Paul Kent has called “mind-boggling” given Anthony Seibold’s five-year deal with the Broncos “ended in tears.”

But Ciraldo may have a premiership-winning coach heading to Belmore to help him rebuild the club.

“I think he’s going to get great experience as an assistant coach. There’s a lot of talk around about Michael Maguire, he was seen having a coffee with Gus a couple of weeks ago,” News Corp journalist Phil Rothfield told NRL 360 on Monday.

However, Maguire seems to be keeping his options open, according to James Hooper.

“That’s really interesting because I actually heard today that Michael Maguire was out in at Parramatta and has met with Brad Arthur as well so he’s clearly doing the rounds,” he said in response to Rothfield.

Regardless of who makes up Ciraldo’s support staff, he’ll be tasked with the job of turning around a once powerhouse club.

The Bulldogs haven’t played finals footy since 2016 but with Viliame Kikau and Reed Mahoney joining the club next season to team up with the likes of Matt Burton and Josh Addo-Carr, things seem to be on the up.

Kent acknowledged there’s “risk” in going all in on a rookie NRL coach but believes

“He will have Phil Gould there and that’s a real asset to have because he’s someone he can bounce ideas off,” he said.

“Ciraldo knows his footy but as we’ve seen the big problem with assistants going into the head coaching role is the other stuff like dealing with managers, trying to get your roster right, trying to get your salary cap right — and Phil Gould is going to handle that for him.”

But Kent raised the question of what has changed since Gould said after Trent Barrett’s axing that the Dogs’ next coach needs to be experienced.

He also wondered, however, if Gould just played “the old two-card trick.”

“What about Gould saying earlier in the year that Canterbury is a job for an experienced coach,” Kent said.

“What’s changed, I don’t know? Something has changed though.

“Shortly after Barrett was sacked he came out and advised Ciraldo to knock back the Tigers job, who also offered him five years and to stay at Penrith, he said Canterbury is a job for an experienced coach and all of a sudden Ciraldo is at Canterbury.

“Maybe it was the old two-card trick.”

Hooper added: “The mail is that from the moment Gus advised Ciraldo not to take the Tigers job was that he had always gone to work behind the scenes from that point.”

“So isn’t it a great move by Gus then?” Braith Anasta quipped.

“He’s outplayed everyone really. He said the opposite to what he’s done, he’s landed the big fish, he’s got the next big thing... he got exactly what he wanted.”