Liverpool Tour: Queensland coach Mal Meninga shows players Caxton Street buzz

MAL Meninga is a rugby league man through and through, but his love for iconic club Liverpool has him happy to let football take over the Caxton Street-Suncorp Stadium precinct on Friday night.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 16: Queensland Rugby League legend and Liverpool FC fan Mal Meninga with Liverpool FC players (L-R) Kolo Toure, Sheyi Ojo and Mamadou Sakho at the renaming of Caxton st as Anfield Road to celebrate the arrival of Liverpool FC on July 16, 2015 in Brisbane, Australia. Liverpool FC are in Queensland to play the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on the first leg of their Australian tour (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for Tourism Queensland)

QUEENSLAND’S all-conquering State of Origin coach Mal Meninga is a rugby league man through and through, but his love for iconic club Liverpool has him happy to let football take over the Caxton Street-Suncorp Stadium precinct on Friday night.

Meninga became a Reds fan while playing rugby league for St Helens in the early 1980s and will be among the 50,000-strong crowd when Liverpool take on three-time A-League champions Brisbane Roar.

“(Australian) Craig Johnston was playing for the club. I struck up a friendship with Craig and through that a few of their players used to watch St Helens when we played and I used to go to Anfield to watch the Liverpool team play,” Meninga said.

On Thursday night, Caxton Street was renamed Anfield Road in honour of the Reds’ visit, with Meninga taking Liverpool trio Kolo Toure, Mamadou Sakho and Sheyi Ojo on a tour of the street.

Queensland State of Origin coach Mal Meninga with Liverpool players (l-r) Kolo Toure, Sheyi Ojo and Mamadou Sakho at Brisbane’s Caxton St, which has been renamed Anfield Road for Liverpool’s visit.

“When you got a sporting event, this street is a buzz,” Meninga said.

“It’s a one in a million place you come to if you’re following sport.

Meninga predicted Suncorp Stadium to have the same type of atmosphere to that experienced in the Maroons’ 52-6 series-winning demolition of the Blues last week.

“It was fantastic celebrations … the crowd was enormous. It’ll be something similar,” he said.

And despite having led Queensland to nine series wins in the past 10 years, Meninga intends to soak up as much knowledge as he can when he meets Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the hierarchy. Hopefully I can learn off that from a coaching perspective. I think we learn off each other,” he said.

Originally published as Liverpool Tour: Queensland coach Mal Meninga shows players Caxton Street buzz