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Rugby league doesn’t need Mal Meninga’s mighty spray at NSW. Having lowered the Blues’ Origin colours for the sixth successive year, you’d think Meninga would just sit back and bask in the glory. Winners are grinners, and losers can make their own arrangement. But Meninga has covered both bases.
In his sights is his opposition Origin coach and former Kangaroo-Canberra team-mate, Ricky Stuart, his former Kangaroo coach Bobby Fulton, his former Kangaroo-Canberra team-mate Bradley Clyde, a member of the match review committee, lumping them in a general spray at anything NSW.
Meninga’s beef was the citing of his champion halfback Johnathan Thurston for bowling over referee Matt Cecchin in a Cowboys club game.
A suspension would have ruled Thurston out of the Origin decider. It failed, as it should – the citing was a nonsense. A browny point to Meninga.
But Meninga was wrong in his beef with the five weeks David Taylor copped for a dangerous tackle, compared to NSW winger Aquila Uate who was cleared for Origin 2 with a similar tackle.
Both weren’t too flash.
The difference? Taylor had previous form, and that explained the net result.
Which still begs the question as to why did Mal Meninga tee off? It doesn’t make any sense, and it hasn’t achieved anything other than blazing headlines, a lot of ill-feeling, and a possible defamation suit.
The big bloke is a good bloke, he’s done a tremendous job with the Maroons, and nobody gives a rats if he’s the head coach in name only, which has been claimed by certain sections of the NSW media.
He’s a winner, like Alan Jones was during his stint as Wallaby coach to claim the only Grand Slam series victory in Australia’s rugby history on the 1984 tour of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and win the Bledisloe Cup.
Both Meninga and Jones claim motivation and passion as their strong suits, and when the “W” appears on their CV, they’ve done their job by whatever means.
Meninga has a 72% success rate at Origin (13 wins from 18), with the next best Phil Gould for NSW with 58% (14 wins from 24).
Jones has a 77% success rate with the Wallabies (23 wins from 30), second only to Rod Macqueen’s 79% (34 wins and a draw from 43), that included the 1999 RWC, the only series win over the British and Irish Lions, and capturing the Bledisloe, and Tri-Nations.
The max.
Meninga (2006 to current) and Jones (1984-1987) are passionate motivators; Gould (1994-1996 and 2002-2004) and Macqueen (1997 to 2001), both hands-on coaches.
Who cares how they did it.
All four got the job done to the satisfaction of the powers-that-be who appointed them. And the fans.
But now is the time to clear the air with Meninga, and to sit down behind closed doors with all those he’s sprayed. There’s fault on both sides, with the media having a picnic.
In the Daily Telegraph, 60% of readers reckon Meninga has gone too far, but 80% of Courier Mail readers support Meninga.
And nair the twain shall meet.
Communication is the only way to solve the impasse before it gets even uglier than it is right now.
The sport is always bigger than the individual, and rugby league needs a public spat between VIPs like a hole-in-the-head.