Mal Meninga

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Captain of the Australia national rugby league football team

Mal Meninga (July 8, 1960) was a legendary Australian rugby league centre.

1 Early life
2 Football
3 Football coach
4 Political career

[edit] Early life

Born in Bundaberg, Queensland, Meninga is an Australian South Sea Islander, a descendant of plantation workers recruited or blackbirded to work in the Queensland sugar industry in the late 19th century; and is an official spokesperson for the South Sea Islander community.

[edit] Football

Meninga made his first grade debut at the age of 18 with Souths Magpies in the BRL. He first played for Queensland in 1979, and helped Queensland to a win in the first ever Rugby League State of Origin match against New South Wales in 1980, converting seven goals from seven attempts.

In 1986, he joined the Canberra Raiders and led the side to their first premiership in 1989 after overcoming the highly fancied Balmain Tigers in the Grand Final. The following year Meninga led the Raiders to another grand final victory against the Penrith Panthers. The Raiders would later honour him by naming the main grandstand at Canberra Stadium, the Mal Meninga Stand.

Meninga captained Australia for 23 Test matches between 1990 and 1994, and captained the Queensland State of Origin team for three years from 1992 to 1994. He remains the only player to captain the Kangaroo Tour on two occasions, in 1990 and 1994.

Meninga played his last game for the Canberra Raiders in the 1994 Grand Final where he led his team to victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs and to their third premiership in six years, scoring the last try of the match. On December 4, 1994 at Béziers, France, he captained Australia to a 74-0 victory over the French, scoring the final try of the game, and of his career.

[edit] Football coach

He was appointed coach of the Raiders in 1997, succeeding three time winner Tim Sheens, but achieved only moderate success. Matthew Elliott replaced Meninga as the Raiders coach in 2002.

Meninga left Canberra and returned to Queensland in 2005 opening several successful business' including a fruit and vegetable wholesale business in the Brisbane Markets, and several Strathfield Car Sound outlets. In late 2005, he was announced as the new Queensland State of Origin coach, replacing Michael Hagan. He made a successful debut as the Maroons coach in the 2006 Rugby League State of Origin series, guiding Queensland to a 2-1 series victory, its first outright series victory since 2001.

On October 13 he was reappointed as coach for the Maroons for the 2007 Rugby League State of Origin series & 2008 Rugby League State of Origin series.^[1]

[edit] Political career

Meninga gained some unwanted notoriety in 2001, when an attempted political career lasted a mere 28 seconds. Becoming fazed in his first radio interview, he resigned on-air shortly after the broadcast commenced. This incident led to the satirical Chaser team instituting the Mal Award for their Election Chaser & The Chaser Decides television shows; presented to politicians for embarrassing gaffes or outrageous statements.