SOUTH SYDNEY coach Michael ­Maguire has rubbished claims he will conduct an off-season “garage sale’’ in a bid to lure back premiership heroes Sam Burgess and Ben Te’o for 2016.

Responding to a report that said the club was willing to offload a host of players including Dave Tyrrell, John Sutton, Tim Grant and Jason Clark to free up the salary cap cash to lure the union converts back to the NRL, ­Maguire said Burgess and Te’o would not be back at Redfern in 2016. “They won’t be here next year,’’ he said.

“And that is about all I can say. Sam and Ben are doing what they are doing and we are doing what we are doing.’’

Maguire also said that he was not ­attempting to push several players, ­including co-captain Sutton, out of the club following the shock first-round ­finals exit.

“Those players are contracted,’’ ­Maguire said.

“Every team has a look at their rosters going forward but those players are all contracted and I don’t know where that talk has come from.’’

media_camera Coach Michael Maguire says he’s not pushing John Sutton out of Souths.

The premiership-winning coach has not ruled out bringing Burgess back to Redfern after 2016.

RUMOURS: Burgess dismisses NRL return

“He was fantastic for our club,’’ ­Maguire said. “And he will always be recognised for that. We would certainly be looking to have a talk to him if he wanted to come back to rugby league. But now he is focused on his rugby union career.’’

Maguire refused to accept his team became the first premiers to bomb out of the finals in week one for several years because they lost Burgess and Te’o following 2014’s fairytale title.

“We had a number of key players ­sitting on the sideline and that played the biggest part this year,’’ he said.

“We showed in a number of games what we were capable of and we just didn’t do it when it mattered.

“Whether that was through injury or suspension, or from a combination, we weren’t able to do it consistently throughout the season.

“It caught up to us at the back end.’’