South Sydney coach Michael Maguire has paid tribute to the growing maturity of Greg Inglis as the Rabbitohs superstar prepares to return from a three-week NRL suspension.

Inglis returns fit and refreshed after being outed for a high tackle on St George Illawarra’s Dean Young to take on Cronulla on Saturday and shapes as the Rabbitohs’ key weapon during the final series.

Maguire was assistant coach at Melbourne under Craig Bellamy in 2009, when a Storm outfit including Greg Inglis won the grand final, before being later stripped of the title for widespread salary cap rorting.

Former Wigan coach Maguire, who has enjoyed success in his first season at Redfern, said he was impressed with the Australia representative’s evolution on and off the field.

“He’s more mature, he’s obviously grown up and spent a lot of time now looking at and understanding his game,” Maguire said.

“Off the field is where I’ve seen the biggest improvements in Greg. Just the way he is and the way he holds himself as a person and how he conducts himself. We had our fan day the other day and he was the last player here talking to the kids so it’s a real credit how he’s holding himself at the moment.”

Maguire said the enforced break had given Inglis the opportunity to overcome some post-State of Origin niggles and he is itching to return to action.

“He’s got no niggles and looking forward and really excited about coming back and playing with the boys,” Maguire said.

“I found it quite difficult to keep him away from training over the last three weeks.”

“I tried to give him a bit of a break but he just wanted to be around the boys and he’s enjoying what he’s doing at the moment so to have a player like that coming into the team with his ability and his aura about him he’s going to add a hell of a lot to our team.”