Mal Meninga wants the entire Gold Coast region to embrace it’s rich rugby league history

Mal Meninga reckons unless you know where you come from you don’t really know where you’re going, which is why he’s taking the Titans on a journey of discovery in their colourful past.

Mal Meninga will be photographed in front of the new Gold Coast Titans honour board which depicts every Gold Coast player dating back to 1988. Pics Adam Head

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Mal Meninga reckons unless you know where you come from you don’t really know where you’re going.

So he is quietly taking the Gold Coast Titans on a journey of discovery back to their deceptively deep and colourful roots.

Meninga, who has joined the Titans as head of performance and culture, has arranged for the erection of a dressing room honour board which carries the name of every Gold Coast player who has passed through the four incarnations of local teams (the Giants, Chargers, Seagulls and Titans) to be part of the national competition in the past 31 years.

Digging even deeper, he asked former Courier-Mail league journalist Steve Ricketts to trace the heritage of Gold Coast rugby league in a special research document.

Being a proud Murwillumbah export Ricketts attacked the task with typically forensic gusto.

His findings shine on a light on often neglected facts about the regions rugby league heritage such as the fact the code was so strong in the Tweed Heads region in the 1920s that a local team took on Queensland and NSW.

Meninga wants the Titans to reconnect with their roots. Picture by Adam Head.

Meninga hopes to create a Gold Coast Hall of fame and the club’s history committee has also launched a public appeal for any items locals feel could be placed in it.

The end result of the whole uplifting exercise is that will help to give the club the one thing it has truly craved yet somehow never quite attained ... a soul.

The region famed for having a “here today, gone tomorrow’’ vibe can now guarantee players that if you were here today - or yesterday - you will, in a small way, be here forever.

“It’s important not just for Gold Coast people but people in general to know the Gold Coast is not just there to make up the numbers,’’ Meninga said.

“It is a strong nursery and has been for a 100 odd years. We have the honour board which recognises players from 1988 but I would like to have a Hall of Fame to recognise people who went beyond that who helped to set up the Gold Coast rugby league.

“It’s important we acknowledge that rugby league in the Gold Coast and Northern Rivers was a lot older than when the Giants first started in 1988.

“That’s my pitch. Steve Rickett’s work shows us there has been a lot of success before then.

Meninga has joined the Titans in a non-coaching role. Picture by Adam Head.

Senator Ron McAuliffe started his career down here. Lionel Morgan was the first indigenous rugby league player to play for his country and he came from the Gold Coast. The great Barry Muir came from the Tweed. He is instrumental in generating the passion for Queensland rugby league.

“It is a big catchment area. There are something like 5000 juniors on the Gold Coast Coast and a few thousand more in the Northern Rivers. Rugby league has played an important role in that region since around 1914.’’

Meninga’s retro drive is not window dressing for he has always been fascinated by the history of the game.

Two years ago he started a push for all BRL games played in the pre-Broncos era to count on a players record.

He has kept more than 30 jerseys from his playing career and, in an episode of Fox Sports Queenslanders Only, proudly displayed an old Brisbane Souths jersey which used to have Colonel Sanders face on the front of it but had faded into a red mist.

THE GOOD: The continued excellence of Indian captain Virat Kohli against Australia may be providing short term pain but it is also a visible example to Australia’s up and comers what a truly world class all-purpose technique looks like. No wonder Steve Waugh says to his son, if you want to watch anyone, watch Kohli.

THE BAD: Penrith reacting badly to taunts from Laurie Daley about the club’s culture. They are in no position to point the finger at anyone, never mind one of the game’s most level-headed greats.

THE UGLY: Whispers that there are scores of sex tapes still floating through cyberspace in the rugby league world and may drop at any time. The game is in even more trouble than it realises.