QUEENSLAND’S State of Origin future has become a premature reality after Johnathan Thurston joined fellow greats Matt Scott and Greg Inglis on a worrying Maroons injured list ahead of this year’s series. Thurston, who overcame a calf tear to play in Australia’s 30-12 Anzac Test thumping of New Zealand, suffered a suspected tear in his
AUSTRALIAN coach Mal Meninga says the amazing depth of talent available for this year’s Anzac Test against New Zealand shows why a return to traditional Kangaroo Tours should be a priority for rugby league. Meninga is planning for the May 5 clash with the Kiwis knowing he will be without senior players Matt Scott and
MAL Meninga insists his job as Australian coach has only just begun despite the Kangaroos’ crushing win over New Zealand in the Four Nations final at Anfield. The Kangaroos were never really challenged on their way to their 34-8 victory, the Australians producing their best form in the final game of an arduous 11-month season.
THE showdown the rugby league world has been waiting for is upon us, and Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga could not be happier. Meninga ignited a Four Nations firestorm with his recent column in The Courier-Mail newspaper, where he laid bare the fractured friendship between himself and England coach Wayne Bennett. Meninga, as always, did not
REPRESENTATIVE football clearly agrees with Greg Inglis. The Queensland superstar, who always seems to produce his best while wearing the Maroon jumper, showed he is no slouch in the green and gold either with a man of the match performance in Australia’s 26-6 win over New Zealand in the Perth Test. The Western Australian capital’s
FORMER Queensland State of Origin captain Trevor “The Axe” Gillmeister is officially “back in the game”, joining Mal Meninga’s coaching staff with the Australian Kangaroos for the Prime Minister’s XIII match against PNG and the end-of-year Four Nations tournament in the UK. Gillmeister, captain of one of the Maroons’ greatest victories in the 1995 clean
KANGAROOS coach Mal Meninga is maintaining a “wait and see” approach to Jarryd Hayne’s chances of returning to Test football, after the ex-NFL star made his return to rugby league with the Gold Coast Titans. The Titans scored the biggest signing coup in the club’s history with the announcement two-time Dally M winner Hayne would
A BLOSSOMING Michael Morgan is in the box seat to become Australia’s long-term No.6 after earning his first Kangaroos jersey in the trans-Tasman Test against New Zealand. Morgan was one of four Test debutants named in Mal Meninga’s first Australian team, with fellow Queenslander Josh McGuire, and wingers Semi Radradra and Blake Ferguson also handed
YES, Mal Meninga would one day like to coach the Kangaroos. But don’t measure him up for a green and gold tracksuit just yet. Meninga, not surprisingly, has been mentioned as one of the favourites to take over from Tim Sheens as Australian Test coach for 2016. But the record-breaking Queensland coach says there is
Australian Kangaroos team manager Gavin Allen says the game’s best players risk being burnt out by a crushing workload being placed on the NRL’s top-flight stars. Allen, a former top-line prop himself with the Broncos and Maroons, said the game’s biggest assets – its star players – needed to be protected for
