In a short list of good decisions at the Titans, Mal Meninga sits fair and square as the best signing
THE Titans haven’t made a whole lot of great choices in their history, but the decision to sign Mal Meninga is easily the best thing the Gold Coast has done, writes Greg Davis
NRL
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THERE’S no two ways about it, Mal Meninga is the biggest and best signing in the history of the Gold Coast Titans.
Sure, there’s not a lot of genuine competition for that title.
Coach-killer Jarryd Hayne certainly isn’t a contender while Daly Cherry-Evans would have been in the running before his Olympic-level backflip a few years ago.
But Big Mal is the King of the Coast after accepting the job as the Titans’ head of performance and culture.
Because he is a winner.
He’s been a rolled-gold winner everywhere he has been throughout his glorious rugby league life as a player and coach.
He knows what success looks like. They’ve been great mates for a long time.
And you cannot put a price tag on that. He is rugby league’s 13th Immortal for good reason.
● INSIDE STORY: How the Titans got Mal’s message
● WHY I JOINED: Meninga reveals why he signed
Twenty years ago, the Brisbane Lions made their best-ever signing. And like Big Mal, the star recruit never laced on a boot for his new club, never recorded a single stat or copped one bruise from the heat of battle.
AFL legend Leigh Matthews joined the Lions as senior coach at the end of 1998. He took the club to the finals in 1999 and 2000 before winning a hat-trick of premierships from 2001-2003.
Throw in a grand final appearance in 2004 and you have six trips to September in his first six years at the Gabba.
Like Meninga, Matthews was a giant on the field as a player. Four premierships with Hawthorn where he kicked 915 goals in 332 games and the title of “Player of the Century” say it all about “Lethal”.
And such were his powers, he buried the “Colliwobbles” curse at the Magpies when he led Collingwood to the AFL premiership in 1990 to prove he could also succeed as a senior coach.
When Matthews came to Brisbane, he brought the gravitas that only comes with being a proven winner.
He never over-complicated things. But he was able to get everyone singing from the same songsheet. He got players to know, accept and execute their roles for the good of the team.
And nobody could question him because he had been there and done that. Time and time and time again.
Meninga enjoys a similar stellar resume.
After rising to prominence with the Souths Magpies in the Brisbane competition where he won a premiership in 1981, Meninga joined the Canberra Raiders where he won titles in 1989, 1990 and 1994.
He was a central figure in the great Queensland Origin teams of the 1980s and was part of the undefeated Kangaroo tours of 1982 and 1986 before leading Australia to the UK and France in 1990 and 1994.
Nobody in the history of the game had been on four Kangaroo tours or had been captain for two of the trips. Until Meninga.
He spent five years as head coach of the Raiders and won more games than he lost but the club coaching caper was not his scene.
Meninga presided over the record-shattering run of the Maroons, winning eight-straight series from 2006 to 2013 before going out in style with a series win in 2015.
And his golden touch has continued as Kangaroos coach, winning the 2017 World Cup.
His greatest strength as a coach is making players feel comfortable and relaxed. By putting people at ease and backing them in, they perform for him. They deliver because they know he has their back.
Big Mal has never been accused of being a shrewd tactician who gets bogged down in the Xs and Os on the whiteboard.
But he is a wonderful man-manager, he brings people together for a common goal. And you can’t question that he knows what he is talking about.
That’s why he is the best signing in Titans’ history.
Given all the strife and drama that has engulfed the club since it started in 2007, this appointment gives the Gold Coast instant and significant credibility and stability.
Watch the good times roll.
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